Twenty five year-old Melody Sanchez Wolfe, better known by her artistic name Belizean Melody, held her first art exhibit this past weekend where she showcased a handful of paintings that she had been working on for the past year.

The event was coordinated on her birthday together with a wine tasting event on June 14, at the Red Ginger Restaurant located at the new Phoenix Resort across from the police station. Melody displayed an array of different paintings that show off her free-spirited nature as she tends to gravitate towards mother earth and paintings of nature.

Melody's exhibit was well received as she got to sell some of her art work and also managed to raffle a couple. Part of the proceeds of the raffle will go towards Life for Lydia, medical assistance for Mrs. Lydia Guerrero who is battling cancer.

"I have always loved to paint and have been doing it for about two years now," commented Melody to Ambergris Today. "I never took any art lessons the only art lessons I had were in Standard 5 and 6 at San Pedro Roman Catholic School with Teacher Lupita Ancona. She thought us the basics of mixing colors and doodling and sketching. I have to say it has taken me a long way; I was always afraid to paint but I thank the many great artists on the island who have always encouraged me."

Melody says that her inspirations from painting have come to her all throughout her life from when she was little and sold drawings of Ninga Turtles at Belizean Arts (hanging around Lindsey and Walter Castillo) to watching Perlita Nu�ez Zapata painting Christmas murals at Rocks Shopping Center.

"I would sit behind Perlita and watch her paint," stated Melody, "As a teenager, I use to visit Edgar Gomez and Leo Vasquez art studios and watched them transform into the artists they are today. Sometimes they would help me paint something but I was always a little bit intimidated."

Other people who have inspired her include her mother Dulce and father Dennis who have always encouraged her to draw, Chris Emmanuel and Mrs. Lydia Guerrero who hired her to teach art at her primary school LIFE.

Eventually Melody decided to open her own gallery, which is located at Exotic Caye Beach Resort, where she works, displays and sells her paintings. She also gives lessons to children, whom she says she loves to work with. It has been a year since she has opened her Belizean Melody Art Gallery and Melody says that everything seems to be falling into place for her. The exhibit is just one of many more accomplishments she has in store for the future.

Ambergris Today