Melissa Kugler

Artist Statement

I’ve always been drawn to the way we remember things—not as whole, perfect pictures, but as sharp fragments floating in a blur of color and emotion. To me, a jigsaw puzzle is the perfect metaphor for a memory: it’s a piece of a story that we’ve fought to fit into place. By sinking these puzzles into thick, gestural paint, I’m trying to capture that moment where a clear image begins to merge with the haze of time. It’s a messy, beautiful process of assembling a world, one piece at a time, and then letting the paint tell the rest of the story.