Meet Melissa D’Orazio | Artist & Game Developer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Melissa D’Orazio and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Melissa, what do you want your legacy to be?
I love creating and for as long as I can remember I’ve always wanted to contribute to human culture through art, to have my art be more than just something to look at. Currently, I really want to influence gaming culture and i’m focusing my efforts on creating a video game. Thankfully, my goofy art style feels it’s strongest when it’s interacting with people so it has been a really fun process. I am hoping that I can create an experience with both enjoyable game play and captivating art! I have spent my whole life drawing and playing video games so this feels like a really natural pairing for me, I can’t wait to show the world when it is finished and whether or not it is loved by many, I will have satisfied my goal and created a legacy in myself, which is most important! I will be able to die happy knowing I’ve created something that is truly representative of my art and my individuality, that’s how I want to be remembered; someone who set a goal, satisfied a niche audience of weirdos, and never stopped!

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
This is a huge question but I’ll try my best to sum it up simply, what sets my art apart from others is… the fact that I made it! I am really lucky, I was raised around a lot of media; I very quickly learned that movies, music, games, anime, cartoons, and books were all created by artists and when one of these artists made something that I had already heard/seen before, they became a whole lot less interesting, and I would just switch to something else. I became deeply fascinated by the idea of “originality” and never stopped working to achieve that, I wanted to reject all the ideas I had seen over and over and make people think “Oh, that’s new”. That being said, as I grew up I learned that being influenced by other artists is super valuable and Picasso summed it up pretty well when he said “good artists borrow, great artists steal.” So now, I think my style is a bit of an amalgamation of all that art that influenced me when I was younger, and a burning desire to be different. It is really challenging to always be original though, one of my greatest fears is having art that looks just like someone else so I end up juxtaposing styles and methods with such a ferocity that I end up with something I’ve never seen before! No matter how hard you try, you’ll never find art quite like mine and if you do, I assure you it wasn’t on purpose! I’m definitely not the first person to draw a cool dragon or a couple of hot babes, but I think what sets me apart is the process, colors, and style in which I create, I think i’m pretty original in that sense and hopefully, my originality with inspire other artists in the future!

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
It’s hard to go out these days but my suggestion is: somewhere with ducks a geese! SO relaxing and a perfect setting for artmaking!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My husband! Trevor Otto Forrey. He is the only one I know who gives real feedback that I can learn from, he is also my partner in developing the video game (he has the toughest job, coding!) I am so thankful to be married to him, he is very patient with my eccentricities too! My family also (of course!) without them I never would of had the courage to show anyone my art, thank you to my big wonderful family for looking at all those drawings of dragons and ghosts and telling me they were cool, you made me feel very special! This also counts as family but I must single out my super supportive Dad, he has never stopped encouraging me and he was one of the first people to tell me to pursue art, I am so beyond lucky to have him in my life and he is just the best. Lastly, my late mother, a saintly woman who I aspire to be like everyday, she deserves all the respect and love in the world and she surrounded me with beauty, art, and laughter throughout my entire upbringing, she probably deserves the most credit out of everybody! Of course I also want to bring up past mentors, teachers, and friends but this shout out is getting long enough and they all know who they are. 🙂

Website: https://www.melissapaintsthings.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/melissadorazio/