When artist Melanie Grein moved to Fairhope, everything she owned went up in flames before it ever reached Alabama. The trailer carrying her belongings caught fire before it left Colorado, and she arrived on the Eastern Shore with only the clothes she was wearing. What happened next, as neighbors and strangers rallied around her, became the inspiration for Fairhope Fabulous, a collage series built from acrylic paint and scraps of Mardi Gras ball gowns that she describes as a thank-you to the town that embraced her.
Grein, a Birmingham native with a long career in graphic design and fine art, has since rebuilt her studio practice in Fairhope while continuing to sell large abstract paintings to collectors, designers and galleries around the country. Here is her story, and a look at the art community that welcomed her.
A Lifelong Painter With a Designer’s Training
“I’ve been painting my whole life,” Grein says. As a child in Birmingham, her grandmother, whom she called Meemaw, took her to art lessons each week, and her teacher would pick her up from school so she could attend classes at Space One Eleven, the Birmingham nonprofit arts center known for its programs for artists and young people. Over the years she has taken 33 workshops. “I love to see how other artists approach their mediums,” she says. “I knew at an early age I would have an occupation in the art field.”
She graduated from Mountain Brook High School and earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Auburn University with a concentration in graphic design, a practical choice for someone determined to work in the arts. “Making your passion work is hard to do unless you have other means of income,” she says.
Marriage and her former husband’s career took her around the world and across the country, with stops in Birmingham, England; Manhattan; Atlanta; Virginia Beach; Albany, New York; and White River Junction, Vermont. Along the way she built an impressive design resume. She served as art director for the PGA National Resort and Spa through The Meridian Group in Virginia Beach and as art director in the development office at Dartmouth College, and she did design work for advertising agencies and small design firms, including Anna Griffin, the national stationery, crafts and gift design company.
Fourteen Years in Colorado
Grein spent 14 years in Colorado before committing to art full time, and during that stretch she found a string of jobs she enjoyed. For a marketing company that represented touring authors, she served as host when writers came to Denver for speaking engagements and signings, picking them up at the airport, showing them around between events and seeing them off. Among the authors she met was James Dashner, author of The Maze Runner.
She also worked as a gardener for Castle Pines Village and the Redhawk golf course in Castle Rock, worked at a frame shop in Littleton, and managed a gallery for evening weddings and events. She dabbles in securities, too. Through it all, she kept painting, and she continues to show her work at Walker Fine Art in Denver, which has been the source of most of her art income.
A Fire, a Fresh Start and a Community’s Welcome
Grein chose Fairhope to be closer to her parents, Melinda and Bill Mathews, who had been coming to the area for years and own a cabin on the eastern side of Weeks Bay. The move, about two years before this interview in 2023, got off to a devastating start when the moving trailer caught fire before it left the Colorado state line. No one was hurt, and she was not with the trailer at the time, but she lost everything.
The response in Fairhope surprised her. “The entire community of Fairhope came to my rescue, many of them not even knowing me,” she says. “A person I didn’t know gave me a chair, playing cards, two lamps, and a bath towel.”
Her close friend Amy Phillippi, a psychologist, brought her ten ball gowns. “Amy is a psychologist and is so encouraging. I had no idea that a gown could lift my spirits in such a way,” Grein says. “I would sit on my front porch and watch sunsets in a ball gown with a glass of wine.”
Ball Gown Scraps Become Fairhope Fabulous
Phillippi invited Grein to the Maids of Jubilee Mardi Gras ball, one of the many Carnival balls that fill the Eastern Shore’s social calendar each winter. When Grein took one of her gifted dresses to Judy’s Alterations to be hemmed, she noticed the racks of ball gowns being altered and asked whether she could have the scraps. Judy gave her bags and bags of them.
“I was so affected by how Fairhope had embraced me and supported me through this devastation, I decided to create a collage series with acrylic paint and the fabric Judy had given me,” she says. “I call it Fairhope Fabulous, and it is a series of piers, sailboats, and florals. Pelicans are coming soon!” The series has been shown at The Lyons Share in Fairhope.
Mixed-media collage has a long tradition in modern art, and combining fabric with paint gives a work texture and depth that brushwork alone cannot. In Grein’s case, the materials carry meaning as well: satin, tulle and sequins once destined for Carnival balls reappear as the shimmer of water around a pier or the sails of a boat on Mobile Bay, a fitting tribute to a town where Mardi Gras is woven into community life.
Big Abstracts and a New Studio
At the time of this interview, Grein was close to finishing a new studio in a former woodworking shop behind her house. “Very manly,” she jokes. She painted the walls white and was adding French doors for natural light. “I plan to dive back into painting big abstract pieces as soon as it’s done.”
Large-scale abstraction is her signature. She favors square formats, 48 by 48 inches or 36 by 36 inches, and works mostly in acrylics with some oils. “I like working in a series, starting with a color palette and sketches to keep the series consistent,” she says. “I’m impatient. I work on several paintings at a time because I don’t want to sit and watch paint dry.”
Designers and art consultants sell her work and have placed it in law firms, businesses, private residences and hotels, including The Four Seasons Residences in Nashville and Ritz-Carlton properties in Vail and Sarasota. She has also completed many commissions. “In the beginning, commissions were scary and stressful, trying to meet expectations. Everybody has an idea of what they want, and it’s very specific,” she says. Today they rarely stress her. “You gain confidence with experience and knowing you can pull it off.”
She hopes to be represented in more Southern galleries, with Mobile, Pensacola and Birmingham on her list. “The fire, the move, and getting back on my feet took a lot out of me, and I’m ready to get in my studio and paint again,” she says.
Why Fairhope Draws Artists
Grein joins a long line of artists who have found a home in Fairhope. Founded in 1894 as a single-tax colony by reform-minded settlers, the town developed an early reputation for progressive education, craftsmanship and creativity. Today it supports galleries, studios and events throughout the year, including the monthly First Friday Art Walk, when downtown galleries and shops stay open late, and the Arts & Crafts Festival held each March, which has drawn artists and visitors from across the country for decades. The Eastern Shore Art Center downtown offers exhibitions and classes.
Grein is a familiar face at First Friday Art Walks and at The Book Cellar at Page & Palette, the downstairs music and event venue at Fairhope’s longtime independent bookstore, where acts such as the Leavin’ Brothers have entertained crowds. She is a regular there, whether picking up a coffee from Latte Da or catching Monday night music with friends. That mix of books, coffee, music and art is part of what makes downtown Fairhope feel like a creative neighborhood rather than just a shopping district.
Dancing, the Water and What Comes Next
Away from the easel, Grein loves to dance, whether freestyle with friends or couples dancing. “I enjoy the West Coast Swing, Waltz, Two-Step, and Night Club Two,” she says. She also loves being on the water, which is a major source of inspiration for her work, and she teases, “I want a guy with a boat!”
She has been overwhelmed by the support she has found since arriving, and she is happy to be near her parents and back in touch with her Southern roots. For readers interested in her work, look for Fairhope Fabulous and her larger abstracts at local exhibitions and at the galleries that represent her. For an artist who once arrived in town with nothing, the pieces are a reminder of how a community can help someone start over, one scrap of fabric at a time.