Melissa Dettloff

I’m Melissa! I’m a teaching artist in Detroit, MI making drawings, screen prints, and ceramics, and the creator of the Goo, a special, squishy being with part of it missing trying to make the world a better place for everyone.

I am a printmaker and illustrator who also plays in fiber and ceramics. Born and raised in Detroit, my current body of work explores the relationships between nature and the city. My work has been shown locally and nationally, including at the Detroit Institute of Arts.

I was first introduced to printmaking as an art student at Wayne State University, and I have been making screen prints for nearly twenty-five years. With my friends, I co-owned Ocelot Print Shop, a community screen printing shop in Detroit’s Cass Corridor, for five years.

I co-founded POMPOM (Printmakers of Michigan Printing on Materials), a networking group for printmakers, with my friend Christina Jacobs. I am a member of Fiber Club* and Still Life Ceramics Studio. My friend Angie Coe and I are working to start a community print studio. I maintain a studio practice at home in Detroit and work as a teaching artist. (Here is my CV.)

You can find my work for purchase IRL at Signal-Return and POST and online in my Etsy shop. You can also join my Patreon, where I create and send to Patrons a handmade zine package every quarter.

I’m not on social media, but I send out monthly studio updates via my email newsletter. If you want to hear from me more often, I post regular studio updates to my Patreon.

In March 2024, I led Drawing Upside Down: A Low-Pressure Sketchbook Practice, which was a fun virtual drawing workshop with 334 attendees for CreativeMornings FieldTrips. I shared how drawing upside down changed my sketchbook practice and how it helped alleviate some of the anxiety I felt with keeping up with my sketchbook.