Street artist Melanie Stimmell created a “”hole”” in the UA Museum of Art’s floor over this past weekend, and no one complained. In fact, museum visitors and staff were fascinated by the entire process, which was broadcast live on the museum’s website. The museum held special weekend hours so that visitors could watch Stimmell work in real-time from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day.

Made with pastel sticks and paper, Stimmell’s painting with its unusual viewpoint served as the capstone for the museum’s new exhibition, “”The Aesthetic Code: Unraveling the Secrets of Art.”” The goal of the exhibition, according the museum’s website, is to help visitors “”develop a vocabulary to approach unfamiliar works of art.””

Stimmell said her inspiration came from the museum’s Renaissance art collection, a love of Baroque art and the visual style of Sofia Coppola’s movie “”Marie Antoinette.””

Before she begins a project, Stimmell takes photographs of models and objects for reference. She then creates a composite drawing in Adobe Photoshop. For the “”hole”” in the museum floor, Stimmell had on hand a mock-up of the final painting scaled down to a grid comprised of 1-inch squares.

Stimmell said one of the most challenging aspects of her work is sitting for hours at a time for a project, which usually take two to three days to complete. She said dealing with the weather could be difficult if she is working on an outdoor painting over several weekends.

“”The Aesthetic Code: Unraveling the Secrets of Art”” is on display at the UA Museum of Art through April 3.