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HER WORK Hitchcock is still subject to bouts of melancholy. In the last eight years, she has been able to constructively use her depression. Her prior work was much darker and abstract, so much so that she keeps the majority of it locked away in storage. Now she describes her work as being much more light-hearted, referring to her "dark" period as a phase she had to go through. "I spent the first 30 years being sad," says Hitchcock. "No matter what I did it was heavy and dark, I can't even look at self-portraits now. It was sweet melancholy, when it almost felt good to feel sad. Art shifts the focus for me, so I am not there stewing in my own juices, I can at least take that melancholy and put that on paper or do something constructive with that." Hithcock's art is at times simplistic and can look unfinished. Figures in her drawings often have missing body parts or are composed of one or two images. In her "hose series" drawings of human heads seem to be floating among images of water hoses. She has been compared to contemporary artists such as Luc Tuymans and Cy Twombly. Her work has been shown at the Sonoma Museum of Visual Art, Southern Exposure, the Meridian and Quotidian galleries in San Francisco. Hitchcock struggles through the process of creating art. With the music of the Grateful Dead playing in the background, she crouches in a fetal-position and draws for hours on-end, ignoring the physical detriments to her knees and back. "It makes me feel more secure, like I am on top of it, more in control," says Hitchcock. "And I like the feeling of being all crunched up. But after eight of hours of doing that, I am in agony." Jack Stuppin, 66, has known Hitchcock for eight years. Stuppin lives in Sebastopol, and is a landscape artist whose drawings are housed at the M.H. de. Young Museum in San Francisco. He has seen Hitchcock's work evolve over the years and feels she is constantly evolving in style and uses different mediums to keep her work honest and different. "I've seen a dramatic change in attitude and approach," says Stuppin. "She's gone through a series of manifestations. I think artists have the obligation to reinvent themselves. If you're doing the same thing over again, it becomes craft instead of art." Hitchcock is aware that some people may view her as too "childish" and question her ability as a serious artist. In 1999, she created a series of realistic drawings taken from photographs of her parents' wedding. "Sometimes people will look at a drawing and say,'my five year-old can do that,'" says Hitchcock. "I know that is not true, but I appreciate their honesty. There was a part of me for many years, that had to show people I could draw and paint realistic portraits and art. But this style I have now, is something I've arrived at, after studying art for many years." Harley, 59, who has no last name, was the co-curator for the 1998 Sonoma Museum of Visual Art "Ingress" show, where Hitchcock displayed her "candy-series" pieces. A Sonoma artist as well as President of the Sonoma Museum of Visual Arts, Harley feels her work is unusual and daring. "Meg crosses the line from one media to another," says Harley. "She is not afraid to take risks, and that makes for interesting work." Hitchcock has found another vocation as owner of the MeSH gallery in Sebastopol. The gallery, which consists of two employees, is also a framing shop. The gallery was left to her by her late friend, Steven Kutchens, who died of Leukemia in July of last year. Hitchcock shows alternative art by emerging artists who meet with her aesthetic. Heather Patterson displays a quilt made out of plastic bags and Wendy Heldman, shows a meat-grinder with its opening covered in beads. "When you're an artist, it is easy to get caught up in your own ego because it is about self-expression and self-promotion," says Hitchcock. "By having this gallery, I am still responsible for putting art out there and having it be noticed. It's not mine, but it's my vision though, because I'm selecting it." Although Hitchcock may be in the business finding art made by other people, her primary concern in life is producing art. She continually strives to create "honest" and "provocative" art, that does not necessarily mean anything beyond the images it presents. Her next series in May, are drawings of thumbs mixed with various images on paper. Next month, she will have her first solo show at the Michael Cross Gallery in Kansas City and in May she will have another solo show at the Quotidian in San Francisco."All too often, people think art has to be about something, a metaphor about something else; that it's got to be serious," says Hitchcock. " I think people take art too seriously. Sometimes it's just fun. Sometimes it doesn't have any meaning beyond what it is, and I think people should relax around it a little bit more than they do."
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