M. Leaym-Fernandez
Artist, researcher, & educator —BASED in the lakeside country north of Detroit
This new site is under construction as of January 2024—please return during the time of construction for new information,
Dr. Melissa Leaym-Fernandez is an artist, scholar, and researcher. Primarily a painter her works are a collaborative collection of media and making as she explores identity, roles held by women and various processes of artmaking. Her artwork and education are powerful tools as an art educator, bringing real world experiences into all sorts of learning spaces. She understands the power of the arts and creativity regarding cognitive development, art education as a process to overcome and manage childhood trauma in adulthood, and how multi-media influences halt and/or transform neurodiversity and creative development.She is available for public speaking, professional development workshops, and community art projects working towards social change.
Education
As a first generation college student, and with a high school GPA of 1.97, Dr. Leaym-Fernandez has a rich education. Attending Mott Community College (in Flint, MI) she learned the ins and outs of how higher education works alone. Later transferring to the University of Michigan in Flint she completed her first degree, a BFA in Painting. Three years later she completed a second degree, a bachelor of science in art education with her state teaching certificate. She later completed a Master’s in art education and another Master’s in arts administration a decade or so later. In 2022 she completed her PhD in art education and women’s, gender, and sexuality studies and is capable of bringing her vast knowledges and experiences to any organization.
Artworks
Identity is an ongoing theme in her work. As a Sri Lankan American she has lived balanced between two worlds rejected by one and erased by the other. Noticing the use of elephants in Sri Lanka culture, and similarities between the matriarch in an elephant herd and the work of her own single mother, she started exploring the roles and identities held by females at a young age.
Completing bodies of artwork in drawing and oils she celebrates female elephants, their responsibilities and identities plus the roles held by women. Leaym-Fernandez’s work is vibrant. Often dismissed as “cheery” or “too fun” because of the planned frivolity and her vibrant color use, her work continues to examines undertones of female identity. Examining roles such as leader, mother, auntie, sister, daughter, caregiver, maid, sexual object, toy, population producer, chauffeur, chef, entertainer, and friend while watching these various roles work to shape, devalue, give hope, encompass dreams, empower, embolden, strip, and erase the lives of women and girls.
Publications
Leaym-Fernandez, Melissa (2023). ACEs, artmaking, and adaptation: Making changes now. In A. Richards, R. Shin & S. Willis (Eds.), Learning through art: The intersectionality of critical identities in art education. (unknown pages).
Leaym-Fernandez, Melissa (2022). A love letter to my little girl. In S. Clem (Ed.), Exploring how we teach: Lived experience, lessons, and research for graduate students by graduate students (chapter one, https://uen.pressbooks.pub/exploreteaching/chapter/a-love-letter-to-my-little- girl/ ). Utah State University Press.
Leaym-Fernandez, M.(2022, unpublished manuscript) The 50 Faces of Chen Kun: Masculine Modernities in Contemporary East and South Asian Media. Outcome from Redesigning Modernities Summer Workshop Award. University Park, PA, United States.
Leaym-Fernandez, M. (2021). Individual Collectivities, panels 1-4, Viral Imaginations. University Park, PA, United States.
Leaym-Fernandez, M. (2021) Unraveling the Anthropocene Podcast: Episode 16: Feminist Art Education & Mental Health During Covid, Liberal Arts Collective, Penn State University. University Park, PA, United States. https://sites.psu.edu/liberalartscollective/unraveling-the-anthropocene- podcast/episode-16-feminist-art-education-mental-health-during-covid/
Leaym-Fernandez, M. (2021). Hyflex Pandemic Research: Living with Coronavirus, Art Education Research Institute, Friday Dialogue Series, https://4d10dd93-5900-4869-abe1- d329134bacfe.filesusr.com/ugd/e7f13f_208161537155485a960c4606c5b733d2.pdf
Leaym-Fernandez, M. (2020), Exploring Identity, Language, and Narrative. Keller Collective Gallery, Penn State University. University Park, PA, United States.
Leaym-Fernandez, M. (2019). Skin, Hair, Water & Earth: 50 Watercolors. Zollar Gallery,University Park, PA, United States
Leaym-Fernandez, M. (2019). Grounded: Environments in Flux” [curator] exhibition celebrating the 50-year anniversary of Earth Day, Palmer Museum of Art, University Park, PA, United States.
Leaym-Fernandez, M. (2017). Success in the alternative visual arts classroom. Advisory. National Art Education Association.
Leaym-Fernandez, M. 2008). Art Gallery Coloring Book. University of Michigan Hospital.
Leaym-Fernandez, M. (1999, unpublished manuscript) Forty Women Artists that Lived and Died Before 1900. London, England/Blenheim Palace, Oxford, England.