Mahoney Artwork selected by U.S. Department of State

Art in Embassies

Established in 1963, the U.S. Department of State’s office of Art in Embassies (AIE) plays a vital role in our nation’s public diplomacy through a culturally expansive mission, creating temporary and permanent exhibitions, artist programming, and publications. The Museum of Modern Art first envisioned this global visual arts program a decade earlier. In the early 1960s, President John F. Kennedy formalized it, naming the program's first director. Now with over 200 venues, AIE curates temporary and permanent exhibitions for the representational spaces of all U.S. chanceries, consulates, and embassy residences worldwide, selecting and commissioning contemporary art from the U.S. and the host countries. These exhibitions provide international audiences with a sense of the quality, scope, and diversity of both countries’ art and culture, establishing AIE’s presence in more countries than any other U.S. foundation or arts organization. AIE’s exhibitions allow foreign citizens, many of whom might never travel to the United States, to personally experience the depth and breadth of our artistic heritage and values, making what has been called a “footprint that can be left where people have no opportunity to see American art.”

Melissa Mahoney - Artist Statement

“I find the Pacific Ocean both calming and turbulent; I’m drawn to all of its energies. It displays a range of colors: from indigo and dark teal at its depth to bright turquoise and blue when the waves are cresting. Its colors and force of nature are captivating to me.”

Melissa Mahoney received her formal training at the University of Georgia, Athens, majoring in graphic design and minoring in fine art. She would also study art in Tuscany, Italy, as part of the university graduate program, where she studied hand-lettering and calligraphy. The brushwork skills she developed in Italy have worked their way into her abstract approach to painting. Starting as a photorealist painter, she transitioned to abstraction, moving further away from the subject and working with only color, shape, form, and texture.

Paintings like Pacific Rising, from her Vortices series, arose from her deep interest in vortices and the powerful currents that surround them. These paintings are intended to convey a sense of motion. Mahoney fills the canvas with paint, dyes, metal leaf, enamel, and modeling paste, utilizing color with shades of dark and light. The completed work expresses a dynamic force.

Welcome excerpt from Ambassador Erin E. McKee

I deeply believe art is more than something to be viewed; it serves as a bridge connecting people across cultural, linguistic, and historical borders. One of the great privileges of becoming an Ambassador is the opportunity to partner with the U.S. Department of State’s Art in Embassies program and identify works for display in my residence in Port Moresby. I am a fourth generation native Californian—born on the Pacific Coast, raised on its shores—and it is from this mighty ocean that I derive my strength, my drive, and my tranquility. The Pacific Ocean is also the bridge between my country, the United States, and Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu.

As the poet E. E. Cummings said:
For whatever we lose (like a you or a me), it's always ourselves we find in the sea.

It is this shared oceanic “bridge” that connects our nations, in which we find our true selves, and I chose the theme of “The Ocean” for the selected American artwork. Considering the Western Edge of the Continental U.S., the Waves series, or Pacific Rising, one clearly feels the impression the ocean has left on the artist, and in turn, upon us. From vibrant colors and cresting waves, to calming seascapes and waterfront serenity, each piece in its own way captures the strength—and calm—of the sea.

In society, women’s empowerment is one of the most critical elements for fulfilling the promise of every country’s potential, and a key focus of my Embassy team’s work, so I selected pieces from female artists. Their artwork and expressions of creativity reinforce women’s strength, vision, and potential.

Pacific Rising, acrylic, enamel, and foil leaf on wood (birch and poplar) panel 36 x 36 in. (91,4 x 91,4 cm)