Tea Bag & Coffee Filter Paintings
Watercolour and gouache on used tea bags and coffee filters
Calgary, Alberta
Tea Bag & Coffee Filter Paintings is an ongoing series of approximately 50 small watercolour and gouache artworks painted on used tea bags and coffee filters. The series originated during Melisa's carya Village Commons residency in 2021, where she noticed the beautiful stains left by tea and coffee on these everyday paper surfaces and began treating them as tiny canvases.
Inspired by artist Ruby Silvious, the idea grew from the Hillhurst Sunnyside Community sip and chat — a space where tea and coffee are shared as acts of connection. Each piece transforms a discarded byproduct of communal ritual into a small artwork, connecting Melisa's visual art practice to her nutrition work and her belief that nothing in the food cycle is truly waste.
The series demonstrates Melisa's ability to find art materials in the everyday and to work at intimate scales alongside her larger public installations. Works from this series are in the private collection of Janet Miller.