Melanie Moralez is an artist, teacher, and swing jazz guitarist living in Bozeman, Mon-tana. From early childhood, she intensely gravitated towards creating art and playing music. In 2006, she graduated from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, with a degree in Fine Art. Melanie is currently in a 3-year MFA art program at Montana State University. Her areas of focus include abstract, encaustic mixed media, painting which engage ideas surrounding the percep-tion and depiction of sound, as well as realistic portraits of musicians. Her primary mediums are graphite, acrylic, oil, pigmented shellac, and wax. She also works in photography, watercolor, charcoal, ceramics, installation, and animation.

Previous to attending MSU for grad school, Melanie taught both art and music high school classes at Eastside Academy in Bellevue, WA. She is currently teaching undergraduate drawing at MSU, Bozeman. She professionally performs gypsy jazz, and offers private guitar lessons.