A Handful of Dust (Heart)

Melissa Dickenson

Melissa Dickenson is a San Francisco–based artist whose work explores the intersection of material, memory, and place through abstract landscapes rooted in the natural world. Using pigments made from soil, sand, charcoal, and rock — often combined with synthetic hues — she creates layered compositions that evoke the quiet, dreamlike quality of memory. Her intuitive process of pouring, tilting, and wiping paint allows a landscape to emerge on the canvas as both a portrait of place and a tactile record of experience. While primarily working in painting, her practice also utilizes photography, drawing, sculpture, and site-specific research.