New York-based artist, Melinda Hackett is influenced by a wide range of sources including the patterns of the Weiner Werkstatte, 20th century French tapestry work, Aboriginal crop paintings, the textiles of Swedish designer Joseph Frank, and perhaps most importantly, the codifying work of the German biologist Ernst Haekel, whose real and invented forms convey a universe of intrigue and imagination. The paintings suggest an interest in invented forms, derived not so much from the rigorous rules of geometry but from a sense of necessity and fun. Hackett is a graduate of Hobart William Smith College and the Parsons School of Design. She is represented by Pepper Gallery in Boston, MA.