MELINA WHITE

Melina White’s hooked rugs give contemporary life to a centuries old tradition. Her layered color choices, whimsical imagery, and balanced compositions create rich, playful, one-of-a-kind pieces that dance with energy.

Using her own hand dyed wools and a punch hook, Melina captures the feeling of being in this beautiful place. She loves how nature is always in motion and aims to embody that in the work, so when you look at her rugs you can almost see the clouds rolling by or hear the crashing sound of the waves. Her rugs evolve as she goes, like a story unfolding. It can become a cloudy day in the harbor, or a sunny one. Flowers sometimes spring up in the fields, or a boat appears on the horizon.

As a child, Melina spent summers on Mount Desert Island, exploring the beaches, mountains and coastal islands, developing a deep affection for its natural beauty. She first began to nurture her love of textiles in high school at Colorado Rocky Mountain School and then at Stratton Ski Academy, where the girls knit hats for each other to entertain themselves on long bus rides to ski races. She went on to study garden design at Inchbald School of Design in London, England.

About fourteen years ago, Melina took a rug hooking course at the famed McAdoo Rug Company in North Bennington, Vermont. Designing and making rugs combined her natural affinity for fabric arts with her knowledge of garden design, starting her on a new path.

Today Melina has a home in Seal Harbor, Maine, where she gathers endless inspiration from the ocean scenes around her, and enjoys spending her time in both Maine and Vermont.

Art Critic Nan Lincoln described her work as “so distinctive one can spot it from twenty yards away,” and recently one of her rugs was awarded a top ten Viewer’s Choice Award at Vermont’s prestigious Shelburne Museum Hooked in the Mountains Rug Show. Melina’s rugs are collected and cherished by decreeing buyers both nationally and internationally, and by hooked rug enthusiasts who cannot resist adding another to their collection.