PORT TOWNSEND — Melissa Klein, a Sequim artist who performs standup comedy, will host a free presentation on Friday at the Grover Gallery in Port Townsend.
The presentation will center on her book, “Match-Liss, Tales of Online Dating,” a horror-comedy, from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. at 236 Taylor St.
“Time moves in funny ways around a divorce,” Klein wrote in the book. “There’s real-time, and there’s emotional time, with surprisingly little overlap between the two. I’ve traveled light years in the last few months. I am 48.”
Match-Liss is illustrated with more than 60 drawings, cartoons, photographs and paintings spanning more than 40 years of Klein’s work as an artist. The presentation features full-color slides with the stories behind the work and the intersection of her artistic process with her personal life.
There is adult content and occasional profane language.
“I wrote the book I wish I could have read when I was newly divorced and trying online dating,” she said in a press release.
Klein tried online dating after being married for 18 years and she said it was “like being dropped off on the moon without a map.”
Klein works in a variety of mediums and styles, from digital logos to chalkboards, to traditional materials such as watercolor, ink, oils and acrylic. Her clients range from the North Olympic Library System, Classic MoonFest/Moon-Fest, Sparket, Sweet Spot Frozen Yogurt, Peninsula Taproom, Inked Out Construction, Sequim Rotary Club, Dungeness Barn House, Nash’s Farm Store, the American Legion (Sequim) and the Volunteer Hospice.
She earned a bachelor of fine arts from the University of Pennsylvania and a master of initial teaching from Gonzaga University with endorsements in special education and commercial art. She taught commercial art at the North Olympic Peninsula Skills Center in Port Angeles, for Peninsula College, Port Townsend School of the Arts and independently.
