FAIRVIEW — As part of its Rotating Artist Gallery, the Fairview Museum is excited to host the artwork of Melinda Ostraff. A reception for the artist will take place Friday, August 21 at the museum from 6:30-8 p.m. The museum is located at 85 North 100 East in Fairview and it is requested that all participants wear masks; social distancing is also encouraged.

Ostraff has a doctorate in Ethnobotany and teaches at BYU. She lives in Fairview with her husband, Joe Ostraff, who was recently named as the chairman of the Department of Fine Arts at BYU. Together they have six children: Josh, Jenny, Zack, Caleb, Ethan, and Hannah. The 4 oldest children are married and Ethan and Hannah are students at BYU.

Ostraff said, “The field of Ethnobotany is the study of interactions between people and plants. My husband is an artist and we have been collaborating for most of our married life in a variety of ways. Joe as my field assistant, and I as a participant in many of his international artistic collaborations.”

She continues, “Through the years this has allowed me to explore many different art forms and techniques. This interaction has inspired and fascinated me. This way of thinking, looking at and interacting with the natural world has motivated me to look at the world in new ways. I look at patterns, forms, colors and textures”.

She also stated that several years ago she was introduced to encaustics, a painting technique that uses hot beeswax to which pigments have been added. She became intrigued with the way that the wax informs and transforms colors, shapes and textures.

Encaustic painting has linked seamlessly with her fascination with plant structures and potential meaning as she considered people and their symbiotic relationship with plants. Over the past several years her emphasis has shifted from ethnobotany-art making to art making as her primary focus and is using her background in botany as a foundation for the process.

It is the simple gestures and visual poetry of plants that caught her eye and drew her into a landscape. This botanical simplicity and poetry is what she attempts to capture in her art.

Ostraff has shown her artwork around the state, including an exhibition at the Rio Gallery in Salt Lake City. The Fairview Museum encourages patrons to come out and view this fascinating and authentic art. Her display will be up until October 31, 2020.