Melba Martinez (Frutamala) is a trans-disciplinary artist and cultural organizer from Pacoima, California. They use their body as the site for plesure, healing, and liberation through filmmaking, modeling, experimental video, and performance art. Her work is a rebellion against a society that deems her fat, queer, brown body unworthy. Her journey as an artist began on the internet, creating multimedia self-portraits as a way to reclaim and reconnect with their body. As a shy fat person, people expected Melba to be a voyeur of their own life. But when they got on stage or in front of the camera, that expectation was shattered to pieces. Creating that early body of work was healing. Sharing their art online led other fat, queer, femme weirdos to their own healing journey. 

 

Melba began to make art offline to deepen that collective healing, centering unapologetic pleasure and futuristic camaraderie. Today, Melba creates performances, vignettes, and embodiments to reconnect with herself and the women in her lineage. Their work feels like a prayer to their ancestors, honoring their irreverence through seductive tension and feisty resilience. Under the tutelage of postcolonial feminist theorists, Melba was taught to make art that integrates her mind, body, and spirit into omnipresent performances and experiments. She hopes to inspire other weirdos to live their lives outside of the mainstream individualist and fascist ideologies.