Mélanie Rocan

Rocan began her undergraduate education at the University of Ottawa in 1999, and received her Bachelor of Fine Arts with Honours from the University of Manitoba in 2003. Having gone on exchange to Glasgow School of Art in 2005, she received her Master of Fine Arts from Concordia University's painting program in 2008.

Besides her exhibition career, Rocan has held the Deep Bay Artists’ Residency in 2014. During this residency, Rocan worked with other Two Six member, Shaun Morin, to create collaborative mixed media works.{{Cite web|url=https://artscouncil.mb.ca/2014/06/melanie-rocan-deep-bay-2014/|title=Melanie Rocan - 2014 Deep Bay Artists' Residency|date=2014-06-23|website=Manitoba Arts Council|language=en-CE|access-date=2020-02-18|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200218182038/https://artscouncil.mb.ca/2014/06/melanie-rocan-deep-bay-2014/|archive-date=2020-02-18|url-status=live}}

Rocan is also an occasional professor{{Clarify|reason=what is an "occasional professor" Is she a sessional instructor?|date=May 2020}} for the University of Manitoba{{Cite web|url=http://umanitoba.ca/schools/art/staff/|title=University of Manitoba - School of Art -|website=umanitoba.ca|access-date=2020-02-18|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191031164342/http://umanitoba.ca/schools/art/staff/|archive-date=2019-10-31|url-status=live}} where she teaches drawing classes.

Rocan is a three time finalist in the RBC Canadian Painting Competition across Canada before its conclusion in 2019. She was a finalist in the Western division in 2006 {{Cite web|url=https://nowtoronto.com/art/story.cfm%3Fcontent%3D155501|title=Bank on this|last=Jager|first=David|date=2006-09-14|website=NOW Magazine|language=en-us|access-date=2020-03-03}} and 2010,{{Cite web|url=https://canadianart.ca/news/painting-semifinalists/|title=RBC Canadian Painting Competition Semifinalists Announced|website=Canadian Art|language=en-US|access-date=2020-02-25|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200225022758/https://canadianart.ca/news/painting-semifinalists/|archive-date=2020-02-25|url-status=live}} and in the Eastern division in 2007.{{Cite web|url=http://www.rbc.com/paintingcompetition2007/|title=RBC Painting Competition|website=www.rbc.com|access-date=2020-03-03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071027092821/http://www.rbc.com/paintingcompetition2007/|archive-date=2007-10-27|url-status=live}}

Rocan is the youngest member and the only woman member of Two Six, also known as Two-sicks, a group of young artists founded in 2003 by recent graduates of the University of Manitoba.{{Cite journal|last=Eyland|first=Cliff|date=November 2004|title=26/Two Sicks/Too Six…|journal=Border Crossings|volume=23|issue=4|pages=16–27}}{{Cite journal|last=Ludwig|first=Kirk|date=2017-11-23|title=The Distributive/Collective Ambiguity in Singular Group Action Sentences|journal=Oxford Scholarship Online|pages=44–53 |doi=10.1093/oso/9780198789994.003.0004|isbn=978-0-19-878999-4 }} The group focused on collaborative art and street art.{{Cite news|last=ENRIGHT|first=ROBERT|url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/winnipegs-singular-collective-raises-a-ruckus/article773699/|title=Winnipeg's singular collective raises a ruckus|date=2018-04-19|access-date=2020-02-18}}{{Cite web|url=http://uniter.ca/view/aiming-too-high|title=Aiming too high|last=Pashko|first=Thomas|date=2017-10-07|website=uniter.ca|language=en|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200218154957/http://uniter.ca/view/aiming-too-high|archive-date=2020-02-18|access-date=2020-02-18}}

Rocan most typically works with watercolour, acrylic, and oil paint on canvas with a method similar to free association.{{Cite journal|last=Miller|first=Marcus|date=2013|title=Janet Werner, Melanie Rocan, Tammy Salzl|journal=Border Crossings|volume=32|pages=84–85|via=ProQuest}} Rocan herself describes her work as "linger[ing] in between a darkness and a playfulness".{{Cite web|url=https://canadianart.ca/reviews/melanie-rocan/|title=Mélanie Rocan: Souvenir Involontaire|last=Kehler|first=Lisa|website=Canadian Art|language=en-US|access-date=2020-02-20|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200221000430/https://canadianart.ca/reviews/melanie-rocan/|archive-date=2020-02-21|url-status=live}} She takes inspiration from the Symbolism movement, which grew out of Romanticism. Symbolism is a movement in which emotions were at the forefront of art.{{Cite web|url=https://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/~dmg/html/exhibitions/1213/rocan/index.html|title=Mélanie Rocan Souvenir involontaire|website=Doris McCarthy Gallery|access-date=2020-02-20}} She is a figure painter, but puts more detail into her backgrounds to help tell the story of her subject. She uses familiar items such as bed frames, floral wallpaper, and tire swings to evoke memories and a feeling of timelessness.

In her work with the art collective Two Six, she uses other media in addition to paint. She makes use of "stretched fabric pieces" and ribbons tied "around a telephone pole or fence post".

{{Reflist}}

• {{url|http://www.melanierocan.com|Official site}}
• [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLf2StKEv9ITUJeblcrGbCxKMuSNcABl20 Audio Guides for Mélanie Rocan's exhibition Souvenir Involontaire with Doris McCarthy Gallery]

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Category:Living people

Category:1980 births

Category:Artists from Manitoba

Category:Canadian women painters

Category:21st-century Canadian women artists

Category:20th-century Canadian women artists

Category:Concordia University alumni

Category:University of Manitoba alumni