Local artist creates unique and vibrant works

Fort Rouge

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 03/05/2023 (966 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Meleyna Bighorn is a work-at-home mother of five — three boys and one girl of school age. Her eldest adopted son, not much older than her, lives on his own. That’s enough work for any normal person, but she is also a committed community champion involved in youth development work. On Saturdays you can find her with a group of youth and children engaged in elevated activities and discussions that build character and instill positive behaviours, virtues, and a sense of responsibility towards community improvement through volunteering, and creating, service projects.

Somehow, Meleyna also finds time for her passion — creating art. Using acrylic paints Meleyna creates beautiful, intricate, unique, and interesting artworks on varying size of canvas.

An introspective, unassuming, accomplished self-taught artist, Meleyna has a style that defies definition, and she likes to incorporate her love of history into her creations. You can easily mistake her work for needlework, as I did.

Before she begins a painting, Meleyna diligently researches cultural and historic crafts from her cultural and family background, including her baba’s crocheted design. She studies the colour combinations and attempts to recreate the essence of the pieces with paints instead of needle and thread.

Meleyna’s late mother was an artist who celebrated what is positive in life through her work. She encouraged Meleyna’s creativity and interest in the arts from a young age.

“Like my mom, I want my work to have a positive message, I want it to express concepts like unity, diversity, oneness, cultural awareness and promoting peace. This is how I was raised as a Baha’i, and I also want my art to reflect my multicultural heritage that I am proud of – Greek, Bulgarian, Thracian, and British,” she said smiling.

Meleyna was born and spent her formative years in Cyprus and said her experience as a young person in Cyprus was unique.

“I grew up hearing the call to prayer over loudspeakers, calling Muslims and Orthodox Christians to pray.” She fondly recalls saying morning prayers with her parents as the sun rose over the sea and lit up ancient, rustic architecture against a backdrop of war and conflict in the region.

“I study my baba’s embroidery and needlework, that hang on my walls. I do online research on the Thracian tribe of the Balkan-Grecian people to create my particular art style, which has no name,” she explained.

“For me, art is a tapestry of many generations. It’s like hearing stories from my baba and passing (them) down to my children,” she said.

Meleyna said it takes her between one week to two years to finish a painting.

“It is hard to know when the art is complete. Sometimes I’m commissioned to do a piece and I have to ask the person to tell me when the painting is finished,” she said.

Meleyna has sold many paintings without actively advertising. She introduces her work through photos on social media and word of mouth. You can find her on Facebook, facebook.com/meleyna.bighorn, and Instagram, @meleynaulyia

Married to a Dakota man, Jordan Bighorn, who embraces his rich cultural heritage, Meleyna said she is tempted to incorporate some of the Indigenous cultural motifs in her work, because of her love for her husband and appreciation of his culture, she’s careful not to cross the line.

“We have to be mindful not to appropriate symbols of other cultures recklessly. I have enough from my own culture to work with anyway,” she said.

Meleyna aspires to have an exhibition of her work one day, with the overarching theme of peace.

“More than anything we need peace and unity in the world and if I can contribute to that message, I would be very happy.”