“Pillars of Light & Strength”

40H x 27W x 1.5D”

Acrylic on Canvas, 2025

$3,650

Melanie M. Brannan

Artist Statement:

I am the path, not just the traveler.. This is the heart of what I’ve lived: not just walking through difficulty, but reclaiming authorship of my story. I’ve taken what tried to break me—a horrible marriage, a painful family past—and turned it into fuel. Not to merely survive, but to ride it like a roller coaster with exhilaration and joy. The descent and the incline.

This painting is alive with emotional shifts—from darkness into light, from density into spaciousness, from tangled chaos into clarity. The dark, fractured skies are stormy descents, trials and pain. But my clouds break open revealing light and color—a sky that I fought for. The vertical pillars are pillars of strength and light, interruptions of grace and growth—the moments I choose to rise instead of collapse. This is not a story of being lost and found—this is a story of realizing I was never lost. Every descent shaped my rise. I’ve made art, meaning, and light out of the dark—and now I live with joy, painting my own path one glorious day at a time.

Melanie B Brannan is an accomplished fine artist and educator whose work is held in private and corporate collections across the United States and abroad. With a BFA from Louisiana Tech University and Certified Educator for GOLDEN Artist colors, she teaches regularly in Dallas, including at the Dallas Museum of Art, and has also led workshops in Aix-en-Provence and Tuscany.