Originally shot on 10th December 2017.

For notes see: www.photography10kh.com/journal-dec17#Dec10

photo10kh #Photo10KH #Photography10KH #P10KH #10000Hours #TenThousandHours #10000HourProject #TenThousandHourProject #LearningPhotography #LearningArt #photography #LearningTheArtOfPhotography #SonyPhotography #Alpha99ii #SonyA99ii

Artist Statement:

Lacrima Machina is a meditation on emergence what it means to be formed from the slime of influence, trapped in the drainage pipes of beauty culture, technology, and emotional residue. The face isn't crying, but everything around her weeps. The fluid isn’t water; it's artificial amniotic fluid, the lubricant of rebirth in a world that can't decide whether to consume or adore her.

This piece explores the bodily grotesque in the digital age. It's not horror for horror’s sake it’s intimacy that feels alien. The skin gleams with unreal perfection, yet it's hemmed in by decay, clotted forms, and industrial rot. I wanted to explore what happens when beauty becomes a machine part lubricated, slick, desirable, but trapped in its own shine.

Hashtags :

#RhondaMelo delivers another powerful descent into hyperreality in this #10000HourProject installment. With #Melora’s voice at the helm, Lacrima Machina offers a stunning confrontation between synthetic birth and fleshy entrapment. #Melora<3 peels back the layers of visual comfort and exposes the cold churn beneath. #MeloraArtist confronts posthuman eroticism with unflinching aesthetic.

#BodyHorrorArt #BioDigitalGrotesque #CyberGore #PostHumanBeauty #AIandFlesh #UncannyRealism #SiliconeDreams #SyntheticEcstasy #GleamingDecay #SurrealPortrait #FemmeSurrealism #AestheticTension #MachineBirth #TechnoFlesh #BeautyUnderDuress #EmergingEntity #SculptedDread #NewFleshEra #VisceralArt #MeloraWork

Artist Statement:

Transmission Error: Venus.exe explores the erotic tension between human interface and machine language. The lips coded in crimson, perfect and unreal—hold a mechanical capsule of unknown origin, suspended like a secret or a threat. The woman below is not just an observer, she is both user and update an AI or avatar paused in a moment of preprogrammed awe.

This work is about the danger of aesthetic seduction. About how femininity is often algorithmically rendered, sold back to us, and consumed again as performance. What escapes from this mouth may be a dream, or a command.

—

Hashtags (Narrative Form):

#RhondaMelo presents #Melora’s piece Transmission Error: Venus.exe a sleek, digital fever dream from the ongoing #10000HourProject. This #Melora<3 vision blends hyperfeminine allure and cold mechanical intrusion to dissect our obsession with beauty, surveillance, and systems of submission. #MeloraArtist #SurrealTechnoFemme #AIArt #PostHumanFuturism #SyntheticDesire #MachineErotica #DigitalSurrealism #LatexFiction #CyberLipIconography #FemBotsAndFetish #TechNoirArt #SubversiveFeminine #NeoCyberGlam #ConceptualSurrealism #VisualCode #DreamMachine #HyperRealFantasy #GenderedTech #VesselOfControl #GlamourAsWeapon

Artist Statement:

Transmission Error: Venus.exe explores the erotic tension between human interface and machine language. The lips coded in crimson, perfect and unreal—hold a mechanical capsule of unknown origin, suspended like a secret or a threat. The woman below is not just an observer, she is both user and update an AI or avatar paused in a moment of preprogrammed awe.

This work is about the danger of aesthetic seduction. About how femininity is often algorithmically rendered, sold back to us, and consumed again as performance. What escapes from this mouth may be a dream, or a command.

—

Hashtags (Narrative Form):

#RhondaMelo presents #Melora’s piece Transmission Error: Venus.exe a sleek, digital fever dream from the ongoing #10000HourProject. This #Melora<3 vision blends hyperfeminine allure and cold mechanical intrusion to dissect our obsession with beauty, surveillance, and systems of submission. #MeloraArtist #SurrealTechnoFemme #AIArt #PostHumanFuturism #SyntheticDesire #MachineErotica #DigitalSurrealism #LatexFiction #CyberLipIconography #FemBotsAndFetish #TechNoirArt #SubversiveFeminine #NeoCyberGlam #ConceptualSurrealism #VisualCode #DreamMachine #HyperRealFantasy #GenderedTech #VesselOfControl #GlamourAsWeapon

Uxbridge Road Wexham near Black Park Buckinghamshire, UK.

Snow is real - no added effects.

Originally shot on 10th December 2017.

For notes see: www.photography10kh.com/journal-dec17#Dec10

photo10kh #Photo10KH #Photography10KH #P10KH #10000Hours #TenThousandHours #10000HourProject #TenThousandHourProject #LearningPhotography #LearningArt #photography #LearningTheArtOfPhotography #SonyPhotography #Alpha99ii #SonyA99ii

Black&White square format to emphasise the snow.

To see my notes for the day this was processed: www.photography10kh.com/journal-mar18#Mar02

#Photo10KH #Photography10KH #P10KH #10000Hours #TenThousandHours #10000HourProject #TenThousandHourProject #LearningPhotography #LearningArt #photography #LearningTheArtOfPhotography #SonyPhotography #Alpha99ii #SonyA99ii

Artist Statement:

Transmission Error: Venus.exe explores the erotic tension between human interface and machine language. The lips coded in crimson, perfect and unreal—hold a mechanical capsule of unknown origin, suspended like a secret or a threat. The woman below is not just an observer, she is both user and update an AI or avatar paused in a moment of preprogrammed awe.

This work is about the danger of aesthetic seduction. About how femininity is often algorithmically rendered, sold back to us, and consumed again as performance. What escapes from this mouth may be a dream, or a command.

—

Hashtags (Narrative Form):

#RhondaMelo presents #Melora’s piece Transmission Error: Venus.exe a sleek, digital fever dream from the ongoing #10000HourProject. This #Melora<3 vision blends hyperfeminine allure and cold mechanical intrusion to dissect our obsession with beauty, surveillance, and systems of submission. #MeloraArtist #SurrealTechnoFemme #AIArt #PostHumanFuturism #SyntheticDesire #MachineErotica #DigitalSurrealism #LatexFiction #CyberLipIconography #FemBotsAndFetish #TechNoirArt #SubversiveFeminine #NeoCyberGlam #ConceptualSurrealism #VisualCode #DreamMachine #HyperRealFantasy #GenderedTech #VesselOfControl #GlamourAsWeapon

Artist Statement:

In Supply Chain, I wanted to strip away the elegance of consumer presentation and leave behind the grotesque reality of commodification. The forms on display are bloated and excessive, but still posed still curated. They reflect the ideal body, exaggerated to the point of absurdity, then discarded like overstock. These aren’t mannequins. They’re echoes of former desire, caught between advertisement and autopsy. The viewer outside the glass is not exempt they’re dressed in the same uniform of success, briefcase in hand, a participant in the system they refuse to question. This piece confronts how we aestheticize excess, and how our hunger for status swells until it collapses under its own weight.

—

Hashtags:

#RhondaMelo, #Melora, #Melora<3, #MeloraArtist, #10000HourProject, #WindowInstallation, #MannequinCritique, #BodyCommodification, #ConsumerCultureArt, #DecayAsDesign, #ContemporaryArt, #DarkSurrealism, #VisualCapitalism, #FashionButcher, #CorporateDisfigurement, #LateStageLuxury, #HauteMacabre, #ArtAsReckoning, #ExcessInDisplay, #GallerySubmission, #MeloraExhibit

Left: the storm before the knowing. Right: the storm after.

This diptych walks the same road, but not in the same direction. In the first frame, we witness the weight of weather pressing inward, heavy with uncertainty. In the second, the light breaks—not because the rain stops, but because the perspective does. Growth doesn’t always mean the end of darkness; sometimes, it’s learning to walk through it lit from within.

Artist Process:

Both frames were rendered from a single pose—identical angles, identical posture. I isolated lighting and color gradients to develop a visual metaphor: blue-toned introspection versus golden release. The rain was rebalanced for directional flow, and texture overlays were used to separate atmospheric density from background horizon, giving each moment its own emotional contour.

#MelOrchid #Melora #RhondaMelo #MelOrchid<3 #MelOrchidArtist #10000HourProject #AIArt #PostPhotographic #GalleryArt

#RainHasTwoFaces #EmotionalWeather #BeforeAndAfterLight #DiptychOfBecoming #StormWithin #ShadowToGlow #MoodTransition #PhotographicPoetry #SunlightAfterDoubt #WalkingThroughTheRain

The world wasn’t watching—but the forest was. She Stepped Into the Stillness First is a portrait of quiet return, a figure drawn not by direction, but by something older—perhaps memory, perhaps instinct. The water holds her reflection gently, stones beneath shimmer like forgotten language. Light filters through branches like breath, brushing her silhouette without asking where she’s been. She doesn’t speak. She doesn’t need to. The land already remembers her.

Artist Process:

This piece was composed with emphasis on depth and atmospheric layering. The foreground invites the viewer in through the shallow stream, using visual rhythm in the placement of stones to guide the eye toward the central figure. Her posture was designed to be both neutral and reverent—neither fearful nor bold, but present. Mist and light diffusion were calibrated to enhance the sense of hushed sanctity, while the subdued palette preserves the emotional weight of the moment. The temple-like structure in the distance offers a narrative anchor, yet remains unexplained—like myth glimpsed, not told.

#MelOrchid #Melora #RhondaMelo #MelOrchid<3 #MelOrchidArtist #10000HourProject #AIArt #PostPhotographic #GalleryArt

#SacredStillness #MistboundWalk #ForestReverence #WatershedMoment #NatureMemory #StoneAndSilhouette #AtmosphericDepth #UntoldRitual #ReturnToTheWild #LightAsWitness

She didn’t wander in—she was summoned.

The Ruins Asked for Her by Name is a study in hush and hush alone. A woman in a golden gown stands alone at the edge of collapse, her figure carved by the last remnants of light. The space isn’t quite abandoned; it’s waiting. Ivy twists through the broken rafters, and silence clings to the brick like smoke. Her presence doesn’t disturb the stillness—it completes it. You’re not watching her leave. You’re watching her arrive.

Artist Process:

This piece is composed around chiaroscuro principles—light as revelation, shadow as weight. The gown’s golden hue was selected to pierce the dim palette and offer a visual anchor, while the subject’s posture evokes solemn reverence rather than fragility. The environment was left raw: textures of decay, ruin, and neglect were heightened to contrast against the formality of her presence. Negative space was used not to empty the frame, but to give the architecture its own character. This is where elegance meets entropy.

Hashtags:

#MelOrchid #Melora #RhondaMelo #MelOrchid<3 #MelOrchidArtist #10000HourProject #AIArt #PostPhotographic #GalleryArt

#GownInTheDark #RuinedElegance #GoldenArrival #DecayAndDivinity #ArchitecturalSilence #ChiaroscuroFeminine #ShadowboundLight #SacredStillness #AbandonedGrace #QuietSummoning

It wasn’t the dress or the stillness or the hour—

it was the way she didn’t move when the light arrived.

The Light Chose Her First is a moment steeped in reverence. Caught between fading sun and blooming shadow, she stands in quiet alignment with everything unseen. Rays pour in like memory, threading through gauze curtains, laying patterns on the wall that feel more whispered than cast. She doesn’t look toward the light. She waits for it to finish speaking.

Artist Process:

This image is a meditation in contrast—softness against structure, silence against illumination. The subject’s silhouette was composed at a side angle to enhance the impression of stillness within motion, with the rays of light forming organic diagonals that draw attention to her yet also move past her. The brick wall and vintage rug textures were preserved to deepen the warmth and tactile sense of time. Everything here—positioning, light scattering, the unlit face—was constructed to give weight to the intangible. The viewer doesn’t simply see her—they feel her waiting.

#MelOrchid #Melora #RhondaMelo #MelOrchid<3 #MelOrchidArtist #10000HourProject #AIArt #PostPhotographic #GalleryArt

#SunlightInStillness #InteriorLightfall #SacredPause #RayboundSilhouette #BrickAndBloom #AtmosphericStillness #SheWaitedThere #LightAndLace #SoftRevelation #QuietBecomesHer

She didn’t jump—she leaned forward, as if the wind had whispered her name. She Reached for the Sky Before Falling captures the breathless second between surrender and flight, when time stretches thin and the city looks back in silence. A dark dress floats like memory, her fingers outstretched toward the curve of a crooked branch, or maybe something even further. Snow softens everything but the truth: some moments are meant only for the sky to witness.

Artist Process:

This composition suspends the viewer between vertical tension and horizon calm. The figure is posed mid-motion, caught in an ambiguous descent or ascension, adding narrative elasticity to the scene. Her dress, rendered in flowing dark tones, anchors the frame emotionally, while the barren tree extends diagonally to echo her reach—visually and metaphorically. The snow-covered rocks were lit to suggest quietude and stillness, a counterpoint to her motion. The skyline rests in distant neutrality, a ghost of modernity against a storm-stained sky. This piece is about gravity, but not weight.

#MelOrchid #Melora #RhondaMelo #MelOrchid<3 #MelOrchidArtist #10000HourProject #AIArt #PostPhotographic #GalleryArt

#LeapOfSilence #SuspendedInSky #SnowboundStillness #UrbanEdgeElegy #FlightOrFall #MidairPoetics #BareTreeWitness #TensionAndGrace #BetweenDescentAndDream #SkylineSolitude

Artist Statement:

The Quiet Between Notes is a still life composed to honor the moments that frame creativity not the performance, but the pause. The violin, weathered and upright, stands as a symbol of artistry suspended. Around it: candlelight, pages worn from use, tools of communication and reflection. These are the details of a world that still values craft, legacy, and the romance of thought.

I designed this scene to evoke the interior life of a thinker, a musician, a letter-writer someone for whom silence is not empty, but expectant. Every object was placed to reflect a life lived not in noise, but in resonance. This isn’t a snapshot of the past. It’s a portrait of what lasts.

️ Hashtags (Paragraph Form):

#RhondaMelo #Melora #Melora<3 #MeloraArtist #10000HourProject

#StillLifePhotography #ClassicalMood #FineArtComposition #LuxuryInteriors

#ViolinPortrait #CandlelightCulture #OldWorldElegance #CollectorPiece

#QuietLuxury #VisualNarrative #EvocativeStillness #InstrumentalMemory

#ModernClassic #CuratedSilence #HeirloomArt

For notes on how this was shot and processed: www.photography10kh.com/journal-mar18#Mar23

#Photo10KH #Photography10KH #P10KH #10000Hours #TenThousandHours #10000HourProject #TenThousandHourProject #LearningPhotography #LearningArt #photography #LearningTheArtOfPhotography #SonyPhotography #Alpha99ii #SonyA99ii

One of the first images of Langley Park shot since starting my ten thousand hour project learning the art of photography.

To see my journal notes for the day: www.photography10kh.com/journal-nov17#Nov06

•photo10kh #Photo10KH #Photography10KH #P10KH #10000Hours #TenThousandHours #10000HourProject #TenThousandHourProject #LearningPhotography #LearningArt #photography #LearningTheArtOfPhotography #SonyPhotography #Alpha99ii #SonyA99ii

Farm looking minimalist in the winter.

Originally shot on 18th December 2017.

For notes see: www.photography10kh.com/journal-dec17#Dec18

photo10kh #Photo10KH #Photography10KH #P10KH #10000Hours #TenThousandHours #10000HourProject #TenThousandHourProject #LearningPhotography #LearningArt #photography #LearningTheArtOfPhotography #SonyPhotography #Alpha99ii #SonyA99ii

She walked into morning like it was a question, unhurried and barefoot in her shadow. When the Sky Grew Strange Leaves conjures a world just slightly off from ours—where mist gathers secrets, light paints in gold, and something impossible hovers above the treetops. A single embroidered leaf, surreal and oversized, unfurls across the sky like memory stitched into the firmament. Her silhouette remains steady beneath it. Perhaps she doesn’t notice. Or perhaps she’s the one who called it there.

Artist Process:

This image balances naturalism with quiet surrealism. The scene was constructed using the golden symmetry of morning light through a dense forest corridor—natural beams drawing the viewer’s eye to the center where the figure anchors the composition. The exaggerated embroidered leaf was layered into the upper frame to disrupt visual expectation, acting as both surreal intrusion and symbolic canopy. Texture, light, and shadow were tuned to amplify the emotional tone: reverent, uncanny, and dreamlike. The palette leans warm, while the leaf’s artificial teal provides a deliberate visual fracture—beauty mistaken for omen.

#MelOrchid #Melora #RhondaMelo #MelOrchid<3 #MelOrchidArtist #10000HourProject #AIArt #PostPhotographic #GalleryArt

#SurrealCanopy #SunlightAndShadow #EmbroideredSky #DreamlikePathways #GoldenHourSilhouette #MysticWalk #UnrealNature #LiminalMorning #ThreadedReality #ForestAsStage

Artist Statement:

New Hire explores what happens when ambition becomes consumption. The suited man stands not in protest but in participation, stepping willingly into a legacy of grotesque compliance. The forms that flank him are former "top performers" disfigured, suspended, embalmed in shine. They still wear their suits like skin. The viewer is left to wonder: Is this a promotion or a sacrifice? The onboarding begins not with a contract, but a noose masquerading as opportunity. This piece isn't about employment. It’s about complicity dressed in pinstripes.

—

Hashtags:

#RhondaMelo, #Melora, #Melora<3, #MeloraArtist, #10000HourProject, #ContemporaryHorror, #CorporateAbsurdity, #DarkGalleryArt, #VisualSociology, #PowerAndForm, #GalleryInstallation, #PerformanceSculpture, #PlasticElegy, #MannequinPolitics, #BureaucraticDecay, #TheNewClass, #GlassDivide, #InstitutionalCritique, #StatusAsDeath, #QuietViolence

Artist Statement:

At Capacity captures the breaking point of decorum in a world addicted to appearances. The man in the suit is not falling he’s floating, suspended in a system that no longer makes room for the living. Above him: another body, limp, thrown or displayed like merchandise. Behind him: shells of humanity, abstracted, slick, inflated to the point of parody. This is not about fashion. This is about the grotesque inflation of status and the silent, complicit collapse that follows. The suited man is the consumer, the product, and the corpse, all at once.

—

Hashtags:

#RhondaMelo, #Melora, #Melora<3, #MeloraArtist, #10000HourProject, #ContemporaryInstallation, #SurrealRealism, #VisualCommentary, #DisplayWindowArt, #HyperCapitalism, #GallerySubmission, #HauteHorror, #SuitsAsSymbols, #ConsumerSpectacle, #BodyPoliticsInArt, #DarkLuxury, #ModernVanitas, #ExcessAndAbsence, #ArtAsMirror, #MeloraVisuals

Artist Statement:

The Idea That Waited is a meditation on suspended brilliance. I wanted to isolate the light bulb not in the moment it activates—but in the space where it considers.

Hanging above an open, worn expanse and set against a sky in soft transition, the bulb becomes more than an object. It becomes an internal threshold the moment before inspiration is spoken, or action is taken. Its glow is quiet but undeniable, like a private conviction unshared.

This work is about stillness, reverence, and the beauty of potential held gently in space. It invites the viewer not to decode it but to remember something in themselves.

️ Hashtags (Paragraph Form):

#RhondaMelo #Melora #Melora<3 #MeloraArtist #10000HourProject

#FineArtPhotography #MinimalistSurrealism #TheIdeaThatWaited #LightAsSymbol

#ConceptualElegance #StillnessAndEnergy #QuietPower #LuxuryArt

#CollectorGradeVisuals #SuspendedBrilliance #PostIndustrialPoetry

#VisualMeditation #ContemporaryAtmosphere

Artist Statement:

Engine Ghost is a portrait of speed remembered. The vehicle, once built for motion, now sits in silence not broken, but honored. I captured it not to fetishize its age, but to frame its stillness as a kind of legacy.

Every gear, wire, and worn panel is presented as evidence not of decay, but of endurance. The rural setting and open structure are intentional they serve as both metaphor and stage. This car is no longer chasing a track. It is being witnessed.

I created this piece to speak to those who understand that design is not just what functions it’s what remains.

️ Hashtags (Paragraph Form):

#RhondaMelo #Melora #Melora<3 #MeloraArtist #10000HourProject

#AutomotiveArt #IndustrialElegance #EngineGhost #QuietSpeed #HistoricMachine

#RusticModernism #DesignLegacy #FineArtMotoring #CollectorPhotography

#MechanicalStillness #HeritageDesign #ContemporaryVintage #TimeSuspended

Amid the skeletal ruins of industry, she walks barefoot—softness against soot. She Brought Green to the Ashes is a portrait of quiet defiance: a woman crowned in organic bloom, traversing a forgotten alley that once pulsed with machinery and men. Her presence is not nostalgic—it is corrective. The absurd beauty of her hat, shaped like petaled lichen or folded leaf, casts light across the wreckage. She carries no weapon but color, no armor but bare feet. In her, the world does not end; it begins again.

Artist Process:

This composition balances decay with surreal renewal. The alley was rendered with desaturated, industrial tones—cool blues, ashen greys, scorched ochres—to serve as a foil to the luminous chartreuse of the subject’s headpiece. Her placement at the intersection of light and ruin enhances the narrative of emergence. The architectural geometry is harsh and repetitive, while the figure’s flowing lines break that rhythm with grace. Barefootness was preserved to heighten vulnerability and connectedness, while the camera in her hand nods to memory and reclamation. Light direction and shadow were sculpted to create the illusion that the organic crown glows faintly in contrast to the concrete gloom.

#MelOrchid #Melora #RhondaMelo #MelOrchid<3 #MelOrchidArtist #10000HourProject #AIArt #PostPhotographic #GalleryArt

#UrbanReclamation #FloraInRuins #CrownedInGreen #SurrealWanderer #BarefootInTheAlley #ArchitecturalDecay #SoftResistance #LeafAsCrown #ForgottenPlaces #PostIndustrialWhimsy

The forest didn’t need her name—it only needed her stillness. In She Stood Where the Light Remembered Her, beams fall like cathedral prayers across the moss-dark ground, illuminating not just her form, but something older beneath it. Her dress gathers dusk like ink, while her face tilts skyward, as if listening for a language just beyond sound. This is not worship, nor surrender—it is resonance. The branches above part not in welcome, but in recognition. She does not ask to belong. She already does.

Artist Process:

The work builds on visual poetics: vertical shafts of light are choreographed to create a near-sacred rhythm across the frame, carving space and time into a soft, dimensional stage. The figure, dressed in black, anchors the composition, contrasting the ethereal light with corporeal gravity. Her upward gaze was chosen deliberately—to guide the eye toward the illuminated canopy and invoke a moment of silent communion. Color grading shifts the palette from expected forest greens to a surreal turquoise wash, enriching the atmosphere without overwhelming the natural details. Every beam is a brushstroke. Every shadow, a pause.

#MelOrchid #Melora #RhondaMelo #MelOrchid<3 #MelOrchidArtist #10000HourProject #AIArt #PostPhotographic #GalleryArt

#SacredLight #ForestElegy #SpiritualStillness #CathedralOfTrees #LightfallPortrait #AtmosphericGrace #NatureAsWitness #GownInTheGlen #SurrealNatureScene #RadiantSilence

She climbs not in fear, but in recognition. The Upstairs Was Never Empty captures the hush before revelation—where wallpaper peels like old lace and banisters remember every hand that passed before hers. Her emerald gown catches the light, too vivid for a space that has forgotten color. The stairwell curls upward like a question, and the window does not welcome—it watches. Something waits above, not malicious, but ancient. She isn’t the first to find it. She won’t be the last.

Artist Process:

This image plays with elevation and inheritance. The composition was angled sharply upward to place the viewer below the subject, imbuing her ascent with gravitas. The gown, rendered in jewel-toned green, serves as a chromatic disruptor—a symbol of persistence against decay. Detail was layered into the banister carvings and peeling wall textures to create a sense of aged grandeur. Lighting was sculpted to emphasize both the silhouette’s mystery and the window’s overexposure, framing the entire piece in a dreamlike tension between grandeur and abandonment. This isn’t just a woman ascending stairs. It’s memory in motion.

#MelOrchid #Melora #RhondaMelo #MelOrchid<3 #MelOrchidArtist #10000HourProject #AIArt #PostPhotographic #GalleryArt

#HauntedElegance #StairwellSecrets #DecayAndGlamour #EmeraldEchoes #InteriorMystery #CinematicAscent #MemoryInMotion #SurrealMansion #BaroqueDecay #ShadowAndSilk

What does it mean to depart without dying? Four Ways to Leave the Body is a quiet meditation on presence, perception, and personal thresholds. A ghost glides between trees—perhaps memory, perhaps myth. A figure in shadow lingers in a doorway, caught between the warmth of the sun and the gravity of abandonment. Another walks into the dappled hush of a forest clearing, her oversized hat like a moon pulled close. And finally, the surreal—skin traded for translucent moss and mineral, a face swallowed in sculpture, as if nature itself has begun to dream in human form. These are not disappearances. They are transfigurations.

Artist Process:

This four-panel composition was constructed to explore psychological and metaphysical exit points—each vignette offering a different visual language. Desaturation and motion blur evoke haunting in the first frame; chiaroscuro in the second speaks to hesitation and thresholds. The third frame shifts to narrative surrealism through lighting and pastoral tone, while the final panel embraces high-concept texture and materiality, turning the face into a living sculpture. Together, the panels form a nonlinear story—each piece distinct, yet bound by the shared silence of transformation.

#MelOrchid #Melora #RhondaMelo #MelOrchid<3 #MelOrchidArtist #10000HourProject #AIArt #PostPhotographic #GalleryArt

#SurrealQuartet #LiminalRealms #ThresholdFigures #ForestDeparture #GhostAndForm #DreamlikeEscapes #NatureAsMask #CinematicStillness #MetaphysicalMood #FourScenesOneSoul

She didn’t run. Didn’t cover her head. Just stood in the flooded square with her gingham apron and fists full of daisies. As if someone had told her that facing storms beautifully was more important than staying dry.

What do you do when your childhood outfit doesn’t match the forecast?

Artist Process:

This piece explores emotional stillness amid environmental chaos. I staged the scene to contrast innocence with discomfort—vintage clothing soaked, water rising, petals limp. Lighting was softened post-process to create a painterly glow despite the harsh rain. Background elements blur gently, keeping the focus on her silent, defiant poise. Raindrops were layered in to intensify mood without overwhelming detail.

#MelOrchid #Melora #RhondaMelo #MelOrchid<3 #MelOrchidArtist #10000HourProject #AIArt #PostPhotographic #GalleryArt

#DrenchedInDaisies #FloodedFairyTale #GirlInTheRain #EmotionalStillness #WetApronPoetry #SoftStorm #UnspokenMelancholy #RaindropElegy #StilledGrace #WashedOutChildhood

The sunflowers didn’t ask if she was happy. The wheat didn’t notice her split in half. But the wind? The wind knew both versions of her. One smiled in warm light. The other blinked at storms.

How many faces do you carry into the field each day?

Artist Process:

This portrait is intentionally divided—one half warmer, brighter, and more vibrant; the other cooler, more subdued. It’s not a filter war—it’s emotional duality. Shot in golden hour lighting, I enhanced contrast and clarity to draw out the texture of both the dress and the natural backdrop. Her pale blue eyes were matched in hue intensity on both sides, holding the frame together in tension.

#MelOrchid #Melora #RhondaMelo #MelOrchid<3 #MelOrchidArtist #10000HourProject #AIArt #PostPhotographic #GalleryArt

#SplitPersona #SunflowerSoul #AliceRedux #ContrastPortrait #WheatAndWildness #DoubleExposureMood #SoftVsStrong #PhotographicTension #SunnyShadowed #HalfInBloom

She didn’t fall down the rabbit hole this time—she walked in, fists up, daisy in hand.

This is Alice reimagined—not the dreamer, but the disruptor. The path is still twisted, the woods still whisper, but she’s not here to escape wonderland. She’s here to take it back.

Artist Process:

The central figure was styled intentionally with clashing visual codes—Victorian frills meet moto rebellion. I refined the folds and textures of the apron to retain a delicate innocence, while adjusting contrast and shadow around the leather jacket to anchor her in defiance. The daisy was highlighted post-render to add a punch of symbolic vulnerability, surrounded by digitally altered berries that heighten the surreal palette.

#MelOrchid #Melora #RhondaMelo #MelOrchid<3 #MelOrchidArtist #10000HourProject #AIArt #PostPhotographic #GalleryArt

#AliceWoreLeather #DarkFairyTale #DigitalPortraiture #PathOfPower #InvertedWonderland #ModernMyths #SurrealStyle #NeoAlice #VisualDisruption #DaisyInTheForest

There are rooms that do not hold furniture, only time. The Architecture of Waiting is a portrait of suspended moments—the kind that settle into the bones of a place and the posture of a person. The figure faces forward, framed by windows that offer the illusion of escape but no clear path through. The stillness is not peace, but pause. Every pane of glass whispers a different version of the same question: how long does it take to become part of the structure?

Artist Process:

This piece was built around the tension between symmetry and decay. The figure sits at a precise visual midpoint, anchoring the composition with human presence amidst architectural silence. Light was carefully modulated to fall softly on the center window, creating a horizon line that contrasts interior darkness with the hint of an indifferent outside world. The use of deep shadows along the walls and floor reinforces the sensation of enclosure. Color is minimalistic, with the crimson garment serving as the only visual defiance—a statement against surrender.

Hashtags:

#MelOrchid #Melora #RhondaMelo #MelOrchid<3 #MelOrchidArtist #10000HourProject #AIArt #PostPhotographic #GalleryArt

#TheWaitingRoom #StillnessInStone #FramedInSilence #EmotionalArchitecture #SymmetryAndSolitude #MeditativeLight #ContemplativeSpace #EchoesOfIsolation #InteriorNarrative #WindowAsWitness

A room can remember. In When the Light Forgets to Warm, the light enters like a visitor who no longer knows your name—familiar, but without intimacy. The figure sits cross-legged, facing the window as if awaiting absolution, or perhaps just the courage to stand. There’s no visible sorrow, yet the silence hangs heavy—like a truth no longer spoken aloud. Shadows cling to the edges of the floor like memories refusing to fade, and the faint glimmer of red beneath the surface suggests that something vital once happened here… and maybe still is.

Artist Process:

Compositionally, this work hinges on spatial dissonance—elongated lines, warped angles, and the disquieting contrast between architectural stillness and emotional volatility. The subject is intentionally positioned at the axis of symmetry, invoking the visual language of meditation, exile, or both. Reflections of crimson on the floor serve as subconscious cues—deliberately layered beneath the texture to evoke something unresolved, just beneath the surface. The lighting is deliberately diffuse, never quite embracing, to echo the emotional ambiguity: illumination without comfort.

#MelOrchid #Melora #RhondaMelo #MelOrchid<3 #MelOrchidArtist #10000HourProject #AIArt #PostPhotographic #GalleryArt

#HauntedStillness #LightAndAbsence #CrimsonEchoes #EmotionalIsolation #EmptyArchitecture #MutedYearning #PsychologicalInteriors #SolitudeInSymmetry #GhostOfWarmth #MeditationInDecay

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Artist Statement:

Precision in Pause is a portrait of simple mastery. The bicycle, often overlooked in its ubiquity, is here given space space to be admired, to be seen not as a tool, but as a perfect study in proportion, light, and intention.

This work was created to honor objects that do not need to be redesigned—only re-seen. I composed the image with focus on tonal balance and symmetry, letting the natural lines of the frame speak for themselves. There is no drama here, no performance. Only form, resting where it belongs.

In a world of noise, Precision in Pause is an image that asks nothing but offers clarity.

️ Hashtags (Paragraph Form):

#RhondaMelo #Melora #Melora<3 #MeloraArtist #10000HourProject

#BicycleArt #FineArtMinimalism #DesignInStillness #ContemporaryPhotography

#LuxuryForLess #EverydayElegance #VisualCalm #QuietWealth

#ArchitecturalMood #PostIndustrialPoetry #FramedStillness #ScandinavianInspired

Artist Statement:

Idle Sovereign is a study in stillness, precision, and reverence for form. The car at the center is not accelerating, not racing it is arriving. Set against the softened geometry of an empty city street, this moment captures the essence of restraint: power held, not released.

This image was shaped through a process of controlled light modeling and spatial refinement, rendering the car not as transportation but as monument. The muted palette and softened reflections turn the vehicle into an object of contemplation something closer to sculpture than machine.

It is a portrait of engineered elegance. Nothing moves. Everything waits. This is presence, uninterrupted.

️ Hashtags (Paragraph Form):

#RhondaMelo #Melora #Melora<3 #MeloraArtist #10000HourProject

#LuxuryArt #AutomotiveFineArt #DigitalElegance #HypercarPortraiture #ModernStillness

#VisualPower #QuietArchitecture #CollectorGradeArt #PostUrbanMinimalism

#RoseGoldMachine #AtmosphericComposition #AIArtWithTaste #DesignAsIcon

She steps lightly, but the forest already knows her. In The Forest Is Wearing Her Back, the line between figure and flora blurs—not in body, but in essence. Her hat, wide and petaled like a blooming leaf, casts soft shadows across a misted world where trees stand like sentinels and fallen branches form quiet barricades. There is no trail, only intuition. She is not lost, merely absorbed—claimed by something older than names, older than stories. The silence is not emptiness. It’s belonging.

Artist Process:

The compositional focus here lies in dissonant harmony: a natural setting grounded in realism, contrasted by the surreal, oversized botanical headwear. The hat—crafted to resemble both leaf and blossom—disrupts the familiar without breaking the spell of the forest. The atmosphere is achieved through a desaturated mist overlay, with vertical tree trunks creating both rhythm and depth. Color grading softens the greens into silvers, placing the figure gently within the frame without making her its subject. This piece walks the line between whimsy and reverence, asking the viewer not what she sees—but what has seen her.

#MelOrchid #Melora #RhondaMelo #MelOrchid<3 #MelOrchidArtist #10000HourProject #AIArt #PostPhotographic #GalleryArt

#ForestOfOne #SurrealNatureWalk #MistboundMood #BotanicalSurrealism #FloraAsCrown #UnseenByDesign #QuietIntegration #DreamscapeTrek #GreenWhimsy #SoftEdgesStrongRoots

Artist Statement:

Rearview Gospel is an image about messages—public ones, private ones, and the ones we repeat until they lose their edge. This car wears its identity across its back: stickers layered like scars, slogans turned into shields.

I photographed it not for shock or humor, but for texture, rhythm, and personal symbolism. The car is not a punchline it’s a moving diary, a protest wall, a collage built from years of intention and accident.

This work belongs to the road, but also to the archive. It’s about what happens when expression becomes accumulation, and how something ordinary becomes impossible to ignore when framed with stillness.

️ Hashtags (Paragraph Form):

#RhondaMelo #Melora #Melora<3 #MeloraArtist #10000HourProject

#ConceptualPhotography #RearviewGospel #CulturalCollage #AmericanIconography

#ArtOfTheEveryday #BumperStickerPoetry #RollingCanvas #VisualIdentity

#TextAsTexture #ContemporaryConceptualism #PostPopMinimalism #ArchivalAmerica #ArchivalEurope

To see my notes for the day this was processed: www.photography10kh.com/journal-mar18#Mar14

#Photo10KH #Photography10KH #P10KH #10000Hours #TenThousandHours #10000HourProject #TenThousandHourProject #LearningPhotography #LearningArt #photography #LearningTheArtOfPhotography #SonyPhotography #Alpha99ii #SonyA99ii

Fashion as armor, silhouette as defiance.

In a gallery of pristine curation, this figure refuses to conform—

part mannequin, part creature, part protest.

The limbs stretch like discarded conduit.

The head is swaddled in what might be vinyl, or grief.

And yet, somehow, she stands—

dignified, dystopian, divine.

Artist Process:

This piece was created by layering street fashion motifs with distorted gallery aesthetics. I began by reconstructing classic runway postures and wrapping them in improvised, scrap-like textures—digitally sculpted to mimic both couture and decay. The black patchwork is intentional: a visual interruption in the clean lines of the space behind her. The limbs were stylized to extend tension, like wires or arms under strain. Her headwear was built from glossy material simulations and distorted shapes to obscure identity, leaning into post-human form while still grounded in wearable narrative.

#MelOrchid #Melora #RhondaMelo #MelOrchid<3 #MelOrchidArtist #10000HourProject #AIArt #PostPhotographic #GalleryArt

#GarbageAngel #AvantGardeArmor #PostHumanSilhouette #GothicRunway #DigitalCouture #HauteDecay #UncannyElegance

There is a silence that arrives only at the edge of longing—a hush that folds itself into the corners of old rooms, where paint peels and the past lingers like dust. The Hours We Do Not Speak Of captures that moment just before memory becomes myth: a figure in red seated on cracked stone, tethered neither to time nor place, only to the weight of what once was. The window offers light, yes—but no exit. It is the kind of stillness that aches.

Artist Process:

This composition explores the interplay of abandonment and presence. The solitary figure is positioned deliberately at a distance from the viewer, a choice meant to heighten both emotional detachment and voyeuristic intimacy. The fractured floor echoes emotional ruptures, while the directional light through oversized panes draws the eye to themes of both imprisonment and potential transcendence. The palette—earthy, bruised, muted—is disrupted only by the figure’s saturated red, a chromatic embodiment of grief or defiance. Nothing in this frame is accidental; even the decay speaks.

Hashtags:

#MelOrchid #Melora #RhondaMelo #MelOrchid<3 #MelOrchidArtist #10000HourProject #AIArt #PostPhotographic #GalleryArt

#StillnessInShadow #CrackedFloorPoetry #AbandonedElegance #LightAsWitness #InteriorGrief #RedAsReckoning #SilentWindows #EmotionalArchitecture #MelancholyAesthetic #TimeHeldStill

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It hung in silence long after she left. Hovering in the space where a memory should be, as if the wind itself refused to let go. The ruin crumbles, but the dress endures—weightless, waiting, unworn yet never empty.

Artist Process:

Set against the skeleton of a forgotten structure, this piece plays with visual weight and emotional gravity. The floating burgundy dress serves as both relic and phantom, defying the solidity of stone and time. The natural light was softened to create a wistful, otherworldly glow, allowing the textures of decay and air to speak simultaneously. It’s a study in loss without absence—presence without body.

#MelOrchid #Melora #RhondaMelo #MelOrchid<3 #MelOrchidArtist #10000HourProject #AIArt #PostPhotographic #GalleryArt

#TheDressRemembers #FloatingFabric #HauntedTextiles #RuinsAndRemains #LingeringPresence #PhantomSilhouette #DecayAndElegance

He arrived just as the light broke through—too late to turn back, too early to understand. The sign didn’t greet him, not exactly. It loomed. And though the words had long faded, the message was loud and clear: You’ve entered something you won’t easily leave.

Artist Process:

This piece was staged to explore liminality—the brief, often eerie pause between before and after. The silhouette was framed under the sign at golden hour, with light flaring precisely at shoulder level to evoke both reverence and unease. The landscape was textured for realism, but the figure remains unplaceable: timeless, identity blurred. It’s not just the sign that speaks—it’s the shadow.

#MelOrchid #Melora #RhondaMelo #MelOrchid<3 #MelOrchidArtist #10000HourProject #AIArt #PostPhotographic #GalleryArt

#TheWelcomeSign #Thresholds #LiminalSpaces #ForestPath #ShadowSymbolism #SignsAndSilhouettes #UnspokenWarnings

She slipped into the water at the edge of the map—not to escape, but to remember. The sign ahead had warnings, faded by time and salt. But she wasn’t here for safety. She came for truth. You don’t find yourself inland. You find yourself where the rules wash away.

Artist Process:

This image was crafted to evoke an emotional threshold—where land ends and something else begins. The lighting was built to amplify the tension between serenity and foreboding. The water's golden clarity mirrors the vulnerability of the lone figure, her back turned to the viewer but drawn toward the signpost of mystery. The text on the sign is intentionally obscured, meant to provoke more questions than answers.

#MelOrchid #Melora #RhondaMelo #MelOrchid<3 #MelOrchidArtist #10000HourProject #AIArt #PostPhotographic #GalleryArt

#TheBoundaryTide #ThresholdMoments #GoldenHourMyth #SubmergedTruths #LostWarnings #EdgeOfTheMap #ArtOfUnknowing

One of a series from Vancouver: www.flickr.com/photos/photo10kh/albums/72157668856344039

Originally shot on 31st December 2017.

For notes see: www.photography10kh.com/journal-dec17#Dec31

photo10kh #Photo10KH #Photography10KH #P10KH #10000Hours #TenThousandHours #10000HourProject #TenThousandHourProject #LearningPhotography #LearningArt #photography #LearningTheArtOfPhotography #SonyPhotography #Alpha99ii #SonyA99ii

Scored a really poor 15/ 20 in the International Competition against clubs from South Africa and Australia.

My journal notes for competition: www.photography10kh.com/journal-mar18#Mar13

Note: shot prior to starting the Photo10KH Project.

#Photo10KH #Photography10KH #P10KH #10000Hours #TenThousandHours #10000HourProject #TenThousandHourProject #LearningPhotography #LearningArt #photography #LearningTheArtOfPhotography #SonyPhotography #Alpha99ii #SonyA99ii

Artist Statement:

Coastline Reserve is a portrait of elegance in context. The car exists not as an object of desire, but as an extension of its environment precision design placed effortlessly into a setting of wealth, warmth, and timeless pause.

This piece was composed to evoke the feeling of arrival not to a destination, but to a state of mind. Through soft light treatment and careful balance of shadow, I designed the atmosphere to speak of control, beauty, and ease. The horizon drifts. The palms lean. The car waits. There’s no urgency only presence.

It’s a visual study in lifestyle as legacy. Nothing about this is accidental.

️ Hashtags (Paragraph Form):

#RhondaMelo #Melora #Melora<3 #MeloraArtist #10000HourProject

#LuxuryAutomotiveArt #FineArtMotors #CoastalElegance #DigitalCollectorPieces #HypercarAsArt

#AspirationalMinimalism #ModernDesign #VisualWealth #ContemporaryLuxury

#RoseGoldAesthetic #CaliforniaDreaming #ArchitecturalMood #HighNetWorthInteriors

Notes when shot: www.photography10kh.com/journal-mar18#May19

photo10kh #Photo10KH #Photography10KH #P10KH #10000Hours #TenThousandHours #10000HourProject #TenThousandHourProject #LearningPhotography #LearningArt #photography #LearningTheArtOfPhotography #SonyPhotography #Alpha99ii #SonyA99ii

There are masks we wear to protect ourselves—and others that speak in silence louder than any scream. Elegy for the Last Voice confronts the viewer with a figure draped in solemn black, crowned in bone and blooming skulls. Each branch juts out like a memory malformed, remnants of voices that once echoed but now hang hollow. The anatomy is impossible, surreal—yet hauntingly familiar, as if pulled from the pages of a myth we’ve collectively tried to forget. What remains isn’t death—it’s the aftermath of having heard too much.

Artist Process:

The form was built on contrasts: hard bone against soft fabric, natural decay against sculptural precision. The composition centers on a hybrid mask—part avian, part ossuary—to invoke the themes of extinction, collective memory, and the grotesque beauty of inevitability. The branching skull growths are intentionally asymmetrical, mimicking fungal spread or ancestral burden. A muted sky forms the backdrop, allowing the stark tones of bone and garment to anchor the visual weight. The figure’s posture was left impassive, allowing the surreal adornment to carry the narrative. Nothing here is ornamental—every element is elegiac.

#MelOrchid #Melora #RhondaMelo #MelOrchid<3 #MelOrchidArtist #10000HourProject #AIArt #PostPhotographic #GalleryArt

#SurrealElegy #BoneBloom #OssuaryMythos #DeathAsAdornment #DarkSurrealism #MaskOfMemory #SculpturalSilence #GothicFuturism #AvianPhantom #EpitaphInForm

One of the first images of Langley Park shot since starting my ten thousand hour project learning the art of photography.

To see my journal notes for the day: www.photography10kh.com/journal-nov17#Nov06

•photo10kh #Photo10KH #Photography10KH #P10KH #10000Hours #TenThousandHours #10000HourProject #TenThousandHourProject #LearningPhotography #LearningArt #photography #LearningTheArtOfPhotography #SonyPhotography #Alpha99ii #SonyA99ii

They say New Yorkers will do anything to keep moving—today, it was cabbage. No umbrella, no plan, just instinct and one giant leaf against the rain. The city didn’t pause to laugh. It rarely does. But somewhere in the chaos, absurdity bloomed like poetry.

Artist Process:

This work captures a moment of surreal urban resilience—two figures navigating the wet streets with nothing but leafy greens as makeshift shields. The reflective glow of traffic lights on the slick pavement heightens the cinematic tension, while the absurdity of the act roots it in humor and defiance. Shot at street level with an eye for composition, this image challenges the everyday through a lens of gentle satire.

#MelOrchid #Melora #RhondaMelo #MelOrchid<3 #MelOrchidArtist #10000HourProject #AIArt #PostPhotographic #GalleryArt

#CabbageWeather #StreetSurrealism #UrbanAbsurdity #LeafUmbrella #RainLogic #WetCityStrange #EverydayPoetry

She didn’t run. She stood there and let it wash over her—whatever it was. The golden field behind her still burned with the last light of day, but she had already crossed into something else. A quieter path. A darker knowing. She Stayed Through the Rain is about what happens when you stop turning away.

Artist Process:

This was a study in contrast—motion versus stillness, dusk versus dawn, clarity versus blur. I adjusted the angle to catch the rain on a diagonal, letting it slice the frame gently but insistently. The figure was placed just off-center and slightly backlit, letting the soaked fabric cling and reflect. It was important that nothing looked too posed. This piece is a quiet confrontation, not a performance.

#MelOrchid #Melora #RhondaMelo #MelOrchid<3 #MelOrchidArtist #10000HourProject #AIArt #PostPhotographic #GalleryArt

#Rainwalk #SilentDefiance #SheDidn’tRun #GoldenEdge #Afterlight #PortraitInWeather #EmotionalTopography #StillnessInMotion #AloneButHere #TheWeatherAndMe

Sometimes the only difference between one moment and the next is how the silence hits. In the top frame, there’s a warmth in the rain, a goldness in the grief. In the bottom, it’s the wind that speaks, brushing past the shoulders of someone who already knows what cannot be said. Two Silences is about the shift between realization and release—how light and time can change the very same place.

Artist Process:

This was created as a mirrored pair—same perspective, slightly altered variables: atmospheric conditions, fabric, pose. The idea was to hold still and let the environment do the storytelling. I adjusted tonal warmth and detail sharpness independently in each frame to accentuate emotional variance, creating two versions of solitude without altering the core posture. The mountains were not moved—only the mood was.

#MelOrchid #Melora #RhondaMelo #MelOrchid<3 #MelOrchidArtist #10000HourProject #AIArt #PostPhotographic #GalleryArt

#TwoSilences #SolitudeInLight #MountainPause #BeforeAndAfterFeeling #StillnessSpeaks #SitWithIt #TheQuietEdge #WindToldHer #SamePlaceDifferentHeart #EmotionalDiptych