Melinda Hurst Frye photographically celebrates the ecology of the forest floor to bridge art with the biological sciences and ecological cycles while bearing witness to the understory of the Pacific Northwest. Hurst Frye intentionally slows down her own seeing by primarily working with a flatbed scanner as a camera, allowing space and time to connect with the protagonists and assemblages of her surroundings.

Hurst Frye’s work has been featured in publications for both art and science, exhibitions, and institutional collections. Melinda Hurst Frye holds an MFA from the Savannah College of Art and Design, in Savannah, Georgia, teaches regularly in the Seattle area, and lives adjacent to an urban forest with her family.

THE WORKERS & THE FOREST FLOOR

Based on the unique ecology of the forest understory of the Pacific Northwest, The Workers is new work by Melinda Hurst Frye referencing the found characters, fungal and other, and their partnerships within the forest floor.

Slime mold migrates, changes shape, and decomposes its host. The fungal hyphae in the forest floor exchanges nutrients and signals between the trees, while other fungi recycle the fallen wood and return the deadfall to earth. The minerals inside of us today once passed through lichen as a result of its primeval labor gradually breaking down rock. The Workers is about the slow churning that takes the forest apart, so it may become again.

The Forest Floor is an ongoing observation and bearing of witness to the brilliance of urban and active forests, celebrating the smallest of natural efforts and champions. By way of observation, experimentation, and slow investigation in the field, the imagery references the activity of forested ecosystems that are layered with a sense of place. As a whole, Hurst Frye’s work leans toward the ecology of the Pacific Northwest region, with the goal of bridging the concepts of natural science with the poetry of art to ignite wonder and stewardship in the viewer.

ROOTS

'Roots' is a collection of environmental photographs, cyclical metaphors of the natural world, drawing from memories to illustrate the emotive aspects of aging and place. My photographic approach aims to create curious representations of the landscape that live in the space between the real and the mysterious. The images are captured with both flatbed scanners and cameras, and constructed to emphasize the drama and the detail of the small spaces. With a background in printmaking and photography, I am drawn to process heavy work and the building of layers. I hope that the slowness of my observation of place, and the slowness in the process of building the images, is echoed in the viewer slowing their own viewing and considering the cycles that touch their lives.

UNDERNEATH

With dirt under my nails, my heart jumps when my hand brushes against a worm in the soil. I am reminded of the world that thrives underground, unsettled by the mystery that is at my fingertips. I watch the beetle make its path through the strawberry plants. Who else is below me making their work in and on the earth? The success and diversity of life near and below the surface contributes directly to life and survival above the surface, though some species and behaviors of these residents are often unknown. ‘Underneath’ is a series of implied urban subterranean ecosystems, an illustrated look at what lives, dies and feasts at ground level and below.

The images live in the space between the real and the mysterious, presenting the environment through a smaller lens of an urban, underground habitat. The work punctuates the need to honor the health of our urban spaces, as subterranean ecosystems reflect the condition of our greater, shared environment. Analogous to a natural history tableau, flora and fauna take center stage to illustrate that we are always tied to migration, evolution and metamorphosis. The surface is not a border, but an entrance to homes, nurseries, highways and graveyards.

South Puget Sound Community College, Olympia, Washington

Portable Works Collection, King County, Washington

North Idaho College, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho

Savannah College of Art & Design, Savannah, Georgia

Microsoft Art Collection, Redmond Washington