Abandoned Cars used as Erosion Control: Illuminated Painting.
Glowing Abandoned House on Swirl Foundation. Illuminated.
Do not Enter: Glowing Old Fridge in Landscape (2'X2' Framed with light)
Orifice.
Skin Disease
Brooke (My Daughter) Sitting on the Tail of a Dinosaur.
Cult Compound: Illuminated painting of a compound floating in the air. (With Frame)
Kansas State Mental Institution: Two blocks from where I grew up. Patients would jump off of a bridge into a ravine near my childhood home. Got a few months of thearapy here after my little brother was electrocuted.
Warehouse with Glowing Door and Streetlight as Momento Mori: Mundelein Il.
Inspected by Learned Man #1: Runes in Tin Foil, A "Future Artifact" that I discovered buried in my back yard.
Abandoned Gauss Church: An illuminated painting. I use rope lights to illuminate the windows and border of this floating painting.
Landscape of Moles: A Self-Portrait.
Brothers -- Illuminated painting of three boys visiting a glowing barn. One of the boys has my father's boyhood face. (Framed w. light)
Weeping Jesus - Rusted Steel Wool
"Best of" Pictographs -- A future Artifact
Skull w. Glowing Eye (eye lights up) (with frame)
Skin Disease
Thumbnail Sketch
Nipple
Faceless Gods.
Skin Disease
Catfish Head from Stull Kansas and American Flag
Hippy Van. The van glows. representing my non-"stay at home dad" alter ego. (with Frame and plug-in light)
Ancient Coins: A study of futuristic artifacts, or objects that will be dug up in the future to be translated by Prophets.
Skin Painting: Sores and boils as in Morgellons Disease. (12X12 )
Seer: Self Potrait. A logo I often use. Trying to see more clearly.
Close on minniature church painting. Photograph
Miniature church painting's graveyard. Includes animation of me trying to climb out of my father's grave, wearing his suit (LCD screen. Photograph
PAINTINGS and ART of VANCE MELLEN
I've been telling stories, doing performances, making strange films and videos for many years. Lately, I've been returning to painting. I'm creating works based in the haunted Midwestern landscapes of my youth combined with kitchy/campy lights and effects. I'm incorporating LCD screens, video monitors, LED lights to build a sense that these paintings are inhabited--haunted even. Most "Illuminated" paintings, or "Adult Night Lights," are framed with a rope light (plug in) and are 1' X 1' unless otherwise noted. All of these works are "For Sale." Contact me at kvmellen@hotmail.com
I'm also exploring the body as a grotesque and pathetic landscape. Sometimes my own body horrifies me. I remember as a kid, my sister pointing out the blue veins pulsing beneath my skin. It almost sickened me. I'm getting older now and I realize that the only reason I've stuck with art isn't for the sex, the money. I guess I do it for a variation of fame... I want to be immortal, to be remembered somehow. Through art, I imagine that I can last forever, so long as a nuclear holocaust or religious fanatic doesn't melt all art. Along this vein I am also creating "Contemporary Artifacts" which are remnants of long-lost civilzations that only a seer, prophet or cult leader could reveal or translate.
DOWNLOAD discussion about OMPHALOS by Jeff Lambson (Dir. BYU Museum of Art), Vern Swanson (Dir. Springville Museum of Art) and Marcus Smith on Marcus' Smith'/KBYU Radio's "Thinking Aloud" program (EXCERPT)
