About Us

"The
value of
art to us
should be
that it is
the
greatest
key we
have to
the
understan
ding of
one
another"

John Rood

Barbara Melnik
Carson

My passion for creating began in childhood
growing up in Southwest Detroit. With limited
art resources, in my early work I improvised
using objects found in the neighborhood.
Working with intuitive and outsider artists
during my career in mental health provided a
creative surge. Yet, something was always
missing. Traveling to Italy, France, Costa Rica,
Russia, Ukraine, Slovenia helped me to
understand themes of my youth. Today, my
sculptural clay and mixed media works grow
from personal insights linked to broader
issues.

To quote from Sculptor John Rood‘s artist
statement: "I have come to the making of art
that has no other purpose than to delight the
human spirit; to appeal to our sense of order
yet without any message other than that we
are human, that we are alive, that only the
human being can create a work of art with the
imperfections of any hand-made thing which
imperfection is basic to man himself."