This article appeared in the July 4, 2003 Jewish Advocate.

The World in a photo:

Winnig brings global perspective to Cambridge exhibit

By Susie Davidson

Advocate Correspondent

Photographer Melody Winnig’s ability to think outside the frame is apparent in her work, which will be shown throughout the month of July as part of the “3 Women Artists, 3 Views of Central Asia” exhibit at Citizen’s Bank, 671 Mass. Ave. in Central Square, Cambridge.

The Wayland resident began to build upon her medium five years ago with a unique approach. “I use a photograph as the base, paint on it with very thick watercolors, often collage on the image, and then enlarge it digitally and paint it on the image again,” she explained. “Sometimes I also mix in earth, sand, corn silks to give texture to the paints,” she continued. The resultant work has been shown at the Fitchburg Museum, the Ormand Museum in Florida, the Fuller Museum, Alex Echo Gallery in New York, and numerous venues in the Eastern US. Winnig also creates commissioned works from clients’ archival and more recent photos.

The expansive view which has energized Winnig’s work has also characterized her life. A US-born artist who grew up in Milwaukee, she was active at Temple Emmanuel B’nai Jershuran, and went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in French from the University of Wisconsin and a master’s degree in Communication from SUNY Buffalo. Truly remarkable, however, has been the scope of her international experiences and the depth of her concerns for those of other nationalities.

In the early 1980s, she worked in Egypt and traveled overland across the Sinai to Israel when that route was first re-opened. “My trip to Israel was a multi-religious experience,” explained Winnig. “We went with people we were working with in Egypt, and were part of a group making a pilgrimage to Jerusalem for Easter. Our bus driver was Arab and our guide was Israeli Jewish. So we saw sites and visited families from all three religions.” While there, Winnig had hoped to connect with Russian relatives who were emigrating to Israel, but was unable to reach them by phone.

Winnig was very active in Temple Beth El of the Sudbury River Valley’s social justice community in the 1980s. She was especially involved in its Sanctuary movement, part of a national network of church and synagogues where congregations, drawing from a biblical concept, would shelter illegal immigrants fleeing oppression in Central America, rendering them immune to INS deportation.

“The people we brought up here from El Salvador actually stayed in someone's home, but we needed to convince our congregation to be supportive of this action and pass a resolution,” she recalled. Her group also raised funds, both to support the families while in the US, and to accompany the refugees back to their farmlands once it was safe to do so.

Winnig has imported goods from Afghanistan, served as a researcher/writer/consultant at Arthur D. Little, and worked in PR for a high-tech ad agency. She also taught screenwriting at Fitchburg State College and at the Boston Film and Video Foundation. In 1993, she formed a company with her husband, Vincent Giuliano, which conducts internet consulting for publishers primarily located in Spain and Latin America.

Her Iranian vistas shown at the Citizen’s exhibit are entitled Shiraz Reflections, Vakil Mosque; Nomads in the Mountains, On the Road to Shiraz; Lone Woman at the Ancient Ruins of Persepolis; Tomb of the Sufi mystical poet Saadi, Shiraz; and Outside the Holy Shrine, Mashad. More of Winnig’s work can be viewed at: www.artkoukou.com/MWinnig_pg.html.

Also featured in the show are Amal Awan and Manijeh Zarghamee Ghavami. “I got to know the works of both Amal and Manijeh when I was curating a show of Muslim and Sufi artists for an East Hampton, New York gallery following Sept. 11,” said Winnig.

Awan, an Iraqi whose family has just returned to Baghdad following a stay in Damascus, where they fled before the recent Iraqi war, was a secondary school teacher. The sale of her oil paintings will aid her family, now living under destitute post-war conditions (for information, please contact capaccio@3b.com).

Ghavami, an Iranian currently living in Boston, is also a physician; her oil and watercolor paintings reflect women’s issues.

This exhibit is sponsored by The Out of the Blue Gallery at 106 Prospect St. For information, please call 617-354-5287.