{"id":5913,"date":"2025-10-21T09:59:26","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T07:59:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.humus-digitalmag.com\/?p=5913"},"modified":"2025-12-23T11:32:43","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T09:32:43","slug":"one-forest-at-a-time-haley-mellin-and-the-art-of-protecting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.humus-digitalmag.com\/en\/one-forest-at-a-time-haley-mellin-and-the-art-of-protecting\/","title":{"rendered":"One forest at a time: Haley Mellin and the art of protecting"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Seen all together, 30 million hectares of primary forests<\/strong> saved from deforestation and conserved in their entirety from one end of the globe to the other, is really a lot. But they are the result of the day-by-day journey, with measures and headstrong actions, one forest after another, one step after another, of Haley Mellin, US artist and activist who has made art her mission to safeguard biodiversity by founding the no-profit organisation Art into Acres<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a recent exhibition at the Museo Novecento in Florence, curated by the director Sergio Risaliti and by Stefania Rispoli, entitled Siamo Natura<\/em> (We Are Nature) the various fronts of Mellin\u2019s artistic activity have been composed and illustrated in a single place<\/strong>: two rooms in the museum hosted paintings by the artist in the heart of the forests she helped to save; another displays her charcoal and pencil drawings; a final space is devoted to the activities of Art into Acres, with ongoing and completed projects around the world. Finally, the new Giardino delle Leopoldine<\/strong> in the Museo Novecento cloisters, which Haley Mellin helped to create as an integral part of her artistic works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Haley Mellin, the exhibition Siamo Natura<\/em> at the Museo Novecento in Florence (2025). Courtesy of the artist and Museo Novecento, ph. Ela Bialkowska<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Haley Mellin\u2019s life is one of commitment that coincides with art – and vice versa. Starting from an assumption: the artist\u2019s total identification with nature, which Mellin deeply feels a part of<\/strong>. A sentiment felt as a human and universal dimension, so true for all humans, nobody excluded. \u201cSiamo Natura is the title of the exhibition; it responds to the fact that we are all part of a larger system,<\/em>\u201d she explains as we walk through the halls of the Museo Novecento where her paintings of forests and trees, soil and animals are displayed. \u201cIn time, history is moving the future and our presence is connected with everything around us<\/strong>. It is something educational, where people can reflect and also have some quiet.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Haley Mellin, striving to safeguard nature cannot be separated from sustainability in every action: when she goes into the forest to paint, she does so with no electricity, heating or cooling and using only natural materials<\/strong>, small canvases she can carry in her backpack. \u201cAs an artist, I <\/em>paint outside, in the places that I\u2019m working to conserve. I paint quietly, meditative and I\u2019m listening to these places; the paintings are of positive places that have always been wild and very healthy places. Painting for me is about practicing a state of mind. A way of being in and with nature; it\u2019s about paying homage, observing and listening as nature speaks<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Haley Mellin, RJ 15.4689N, 90.7782W<\/em>, 2022. Gouache on panel in artist’s frame. Courtesy Carola Jain Collection<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The organisation of her exhibitions is based on recyclable and sustainable materials, with a completely monitored carbon footprint. \u201cSustainability is very important in my work<\/em>,\u201d she confirms, \u201cI work with museum pioneers and teach them how they can be more sustainable.<\/em><\/strong> I\u2019ve done the first carbon calculation for these museums for free. In my own practice I paint with non-toxic gouache, working on small sizes, easy to carry. For the frame pieces I work with an Italian walnut moulding producer; the plant one tree in California for each frame produced for me in collaboration with One Tree Planted<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this field, Haley has contributed to the regeneration of the Giardino delle Leopoldine, the ancient Renaissance cloisters in the building in Florence that today is home to the Museo Novecento, in which, curated by the landscape architect Matilde d\u2019Oriano, 300 local plant species, and others linked historically and culturally to the Tuscan landscape, have been planted<\/strong>: pomegranate, cypress, bitter orange, helichrysum, rosemary, sage, dog rose, myrtle, wild thyme and acanthus, the symbol of perseverance, due to its ability to grow strong even when faced with obstacles. Wes Sechrest and Leonardo DiCaprio’s organisation Re:wild also worked on the project, along with Art into Acres.<\/strong> \u201cThis is a civic museum,\u201d <\/em>Haley says, \u201cas part of my civic commitment I have initiated a project in the cloister with the museum, which a new nature garden; it is about a retreat for hundreds of plants and trees native to Tuscany, medicinal plants or used in cooking. We created a place for plants to live and for the community<\/strong>, a place to rest the eyes and the body.\u201d<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The forests where Mellin paints are those where Art into Acres – defined as a kind of environmental collective working to protect vast areas of unspoiled territory – runs its protection projects. The global artistic community takes part in the project by donating and selling works of art, the proceeds of which support forest protection activities (30 million hectares until now), returning them to the local and indigenous communities <\/strong>and engaging international organisations. This huge movement began with Haley Mellin as an artistic practice focusing on the community. \u201cLand conservation is, not always, but tends to be in places of high biodiversity, which tends to be in the tropics. For about eight millions years, near the equator, tropical forests developed a very high biodiversity in a very stable climate<\/em>,<\/em>\u201d the artist explains.  Art into Acres has worked in reserves and forests in Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Suriname. One of the most recently completed projects, in October 2024, was the first territory for isolated indigenous peoples in Putumayo in Colombia<\/strong>, protecting a million hectares of Amazonian Forest; in this case not only biodiversity but the cultural rights of the indigenous populations were also protected. But Art into Acres also works in higher latitudes: again in 2024, in Canada, a new conservation area covering 850,000 hectares was established in Aullaviat\/Anguniarvik in the Yukon, <\/strong>led by the indigenous Inuvialuit communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Haley Mellin, Northern Highlands<\/em>, Guatemala, 2024, gouache, acrylic, charcoal, and ink on canvas. Courtesy of a private collection, Switzerland<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I ask Haley Mellin how she feels when she is painting in the forest. \u201cBeing in the forest is a place where your senses are keen to connect,\u201d <\/em>she replies. \u201cThe sense of smell, sound, touch; just feeling the moisture on your face\u2026 You\u2019re not with a tree, you\u2019re not with a plant, you\u2019re not with a bug. You\u2019re with a whole symphony of life<\/strong>. A forest is a place where there are so many living things, living in harmony and competition and I feel very happy in a forest, I\u2019m very aware of my own mortality, we\u2019re life, in a forest<\/strong><\/em>.<\/em><\/strong>\u201d I also ask her where the beauty of wild nature lies, where humans have left no trace. Haley thinks for a moment before answering. Then, carefully measuring her words, she explains: \u201cFor me beauty in wilderness is seeing things as they are. When I\u2019m painting, when drawing, working on conservation I\u2019m very much interested in seeing what is there as it is, which means not making it look a certain way or stylizing it or not choosing one thing over the next but instead being present and documenting what is actually there because it is actually quite beautiful as it is. I think whether you\u2019re looking at a big mountain or wet forest or mud. They all have their toxic beauty. And I think expanding our reception of beauty, expanding our definition of beauty is exceptionally important for the wellbeing of the planet<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n