The Art of Deb Mell
The Art of Deb Mell
debmell
About ME
"Not your ordinary craft fair" - February 2008
by Dan Bischoff/Star-Ledger Staff
Tribal Roots in the Garden State: 2008 New Jersey Arts Annual Crafts.
"Maplewood artist Deb Mell does something similar with her equally brilliant "beaded" figures -- beaded, that is, with thousands of tiny found objects, from plastic toy tabs to deer antlers, laid over armatures made of sculptmold (a kind of plaster-coated paper that dries into a hard but carvable smooth surface).
"I got the antlers by trading one of my other, finished pieces for them and a coyote skull," says Mell, who is of Cherokee heritage and hails from southern Illinois. "I used to make Indian costumes as a child, you know, beaded costumes, so the color combinations and all that are pretty natural to me. The little plastic bits function as beads. I use them as paint, really.""
"Tribal Roots in The Garden State" - February - May 2008
2008 New Jersey Arts Annual Crafts
Montclair Art Museum
"Colorful Witnesses to Those Who Went Before" - October 2007
By JOE POMPEO
"MEXICO’S Dia de Los Muertos, or Day of the Dead celebration, has become an increasingly popular part of New York’s mainstream Halloween festivities....“It’s a portrait of a person I knew who died. She wore hats and she fancied birds, so for me it’s a memorial.” "
"Hold on to your seats" - August 2007
Posted by STAR-LEDGER ENTERTAINMENT STAFF - "The chair turns out to be a fine subject for artists....As two-dimensional chairs go, Deb Mell, as always, creates an absolutely clarion clash of colors...."
Chairs: Form Follows Vision
The Visual Arts Center of New Jersey
March 20, 2007
Cathexis: Art of Obsession Featured at Pierro Gallery
CRITICS SELECT '06
Seven art critics from throughout North America were asked to choose under-represented artists in specific geographical regions who exemplify the spirit of contemporary art today or represent new trends in art.
GALLERY OF SOUTH ORANGE October - 1996 ''Personal Mythologies,'' paintings and sculpture by Deb Mell.
I grew up making things. My grandfather was a collector. Every find had a purpose. He taught me to create whatever my mind could see from whatever I found as material -- anything -- from driftwood to broken glass would do. His rule for construction? It had to work -- if I made a boat, it had to float -- if I made a plane it had to fly.
I’ve always enjoyed the process -- almost as much as the creation itself. Finding the physical aspects of the construction are as important as the creative ones. It's why I often make my own paper, and use wood rather than canvas. Like my grandfather, I too am a collector of 'things', transforming them into my own, personal mythologies.
Mythology has evolved from the cultural underpinnings present in virtually all societies. Different civilizations have relied on the dissemination of myths as a way of 'explaining' the inexplicable, enforcing cultural institutions or relieving societal tensions. Most mythological tales are couched in the spiritual allegories of the societies from which they emanate.
This, then, is the platform I use in my art to build the personal story of my relationships with family, friends and acquaintances. It is my own history, which includes ancestors of Native American Indian heritage, that serves as my personal dictionary. I use the playfulness inherent in myths and legends as a means of turning personal frustrations and fantasies into artistic portrayals.
As a writer friend of mine put it, my work is about coaxing the emanation of spirit itself (what the Chinese call chi), from the inanimate; or more simply, to animate the inanimate.
The Art of Deb Mell
debmell
