A Life Rife with Art: Doug Melnyk by Ian Mozdzen
“I have faith that good things will happen.”
Comforting words from one of Winnipeg’s most pre-eminent artists, Doug Melnyk.
And what Doug says, Doug lives. “A life rife with art and art-making,” he chuckles in the downtown apartment he shares with photographer Larry Glawson, his partner of over 30 years. “Art-making is central to my life. It’s an ongoing conversation with myself that I couldn’t have in any other way.”
The red walls of the apartment are an immense collage of photographs, drawings, art objects and performance artefacts, like an imposing man-sized Christ doll. “You get a chance to live in your daydreams,” Doug muses.
Poetry, performance, installation, drawing, and video – this East Kildonan boy turned graphic designer turned University of Manitoba Fine Arts grad keeps himself on his toes by plunging into every artistic discipline imaginable.
“I prefer being a novice,” Doug admits. “It’s a position wherein I have a lot to learn.”
Over the course of three decades, Doug has developed an intensely personal and hulking body of solo and collaborative work that has titillated and inspired generations of Winnipeg artists. His creations are found in local, national, and international collections, including the National Gallery of Canada and New York’s Museum of Modern Art.
“Every kind of art project that I’ve been involved with is about inventing a new world,” Doug remarks. “I keep getting further and further into situations where I don’t know what I’m doing. I guess that keeps me authentic.”
Not just authentic - singular. Doug’s various cross-disciplinary creations are notorious for being as preposterous as they are profound.
Naked Croquet (1987), his first publication, is a melancholic collection of poetic anecdotes providing meditation on everything from Spiderman to Las Vegas to root canals. The internationally toured Gorilla (1989) is a multi-layered ensemble performance piece sprung from the classic 1932 film Blonde Venus and features a man-sized (you guessed it) gorilla. Then there is the extravagant Fruits (2005), a floridly playful queer comic, as well as the beguiling Adam & Steve (2006), an experimental animation that continues Doug’s ongoing flirtation with masculinity, the animal kingdom and the genesis story.
“There’s a kookiness to most artists. I enjoy it.”
Rambunctious images of Eden also abound, namely by way of gigantic African head sculptures floating in the night, nude male angels, and bookish psychotherapists philoso- phizing about pornography from the grave.
“I don’t know if I would like to live in these worlds ... but I want to see that they have a chance,” confides this self-proclaimed romantic.
Doug has also invested his creative energies into the community. He is a co-founding member of Ace Art Inc., a fixture on the gallery scene for over 25 years, and has been teaching art at the Winnipeg Art Gallery for almost a decade.
“Winnipeg is important to my identity as an artist,” Doug affirms. “People are willing to help each other. There are a lot of big accomplishments, but not a lot of big egos.”
Doug’s newest commission, Nippon Maru, a short animation about shipwreck, survival, and island life, continues his search for humility.
“My normal frame of mind is that I see people as being a very small part of the world,” Doug confides.
Nippon Maru emerged from time spent swimming in the YMCA downtown pool. “What struck me was the pointlessness of swimming. That’s when the image of the sinking ship came to me with people swimming helplessly around it.”
Web surfing for cruise ships, Doug encountered Nippon Maru, a real-life (and still floating!) Japanese cruise ship. The rest is Doug’s vibrantly-coloured, intricately detailed and whimsically animated tale.
“Of the 47 passengers, two humans survive on an island, but only for a short time. When they are gone the island becomes a much more lively and vivid place.”
In the wake of Nippon Maru’s fall 2010 premiere, Doug also anticipates 27 x Doug, Gallery One’s retrospective of Larry Glawson’s work capturing the couple’s decades together. 27 x Doug will feature images of Doug that cover a span of 27 years.
For this optimist adrift in a life rife with art, that’s just business as usual. “All of your experience is part of your project,” he affirms.
Doug Melnyk’s work is represented by O’Connor Gallery in Toronto.
Nippon Maru
etching
artist: Doug Melnyk
“I have faith that good things will happen.”
Comforting words from one of Winnipeg’s most pre-eminent artists, Doug Melnyk.
And what Doug says, Doug lives. “A life rife with art and art-making,” he chuckles in the downtown apartment he shares with photographer Larry Glawson, his partner of over 30 years. “Art-making is central to my life. It’s an ongoing conversation with myself that I couldn’t have in any other way.”
The red walls of the apartment are an immense collage of photographs, drawings, art objects and performance artefacts, like an imposing man-sized Christ doll. “You get a chance to live in your daydreams,” Doug muses.
Poetry, performance, installation, drawing, and video – this East Kildonan boy turned graphic designer turned University of Manitoba Fine Arts grad keeps himself on his toes by plunging into every artistic discipline imaginable.
“I prefer being a novice,” Doug admits. “It’s a position wherein I have a lot to learn.”
Over the course of three decades, Doug has developed an intensely personal and hulking body of solo and collaborative work that has titillated and inspired generations of Winnipeg artists. His creations are found in local, national, and international collections, including the National Gallery of Canada and New York’s Museum of Modern Art.
“Every kind of art project that I’ve been involved with is about inventing a new world,” Doug remarks. “I keep getting further and further into situations where I don’t know what I’m doing. I guess that keeps me authentic.”
Not just authentic - singular. Doug’s various cross-disciplinary creations are notorious for being as preposterous as they are profound.
Naked Croquet (1987), his first publication, is a melancholic collection of poetic anecdotes providing meditation on everything from Spiderman to Las Vegas to root canals. The internationally toured Gorilla (1989) is a multi-layered ensemble performance piece sprung from the classic 1932 film Blonde Venus and features a man-sized (you guessed it) gorilla. Then there is the extravagant Fruits (2005), a floridly playful queer comic, as well as the beguiling Adam & Steve (2006), an experimental animation that continues Doug’s ongoing flirtation with masculinity, the animal kingdom and the genesis story.
“There’s a kookiness to most artists. I enjoy it.”
Rambunctious images of Eden also abound, namely by way of gigantic African head sculptures floating in the night, nude male angels, and bookish psychotherapists philoso- phizing about pornography from the grave.
“I don’t know if I would like to live in these worlds ... but I want to see that they have a chance,” confides this self-proclaimed romantic.
Doug has also invested his creative energies into the community. He is a co-founding member of Ace Art Inc., a fixture on the gallery scene for over 25 years, and has been teaching art at the Winnipeg Art Gallery for almost a decade.
“Winnipeg is important to my identity as an artist,” Doug affirms. “People are willing to help each other. There are a lot of big accomplishments, but not a lot of big egos.”
Doug’s newest commission, Nippon Maru, a short animation about shipwreck, survival, and island life, continues his search for humility.
“My normal frame of mind is that I see people as being a very small part of the world,” Doug confides.
Nippon Maru emerged from time spent swimming in the YMCA downtown pool. “What struck me was the pointlessness of swimming. That’s when the image of the sinking ship came to me with people swimming helplessly around it.”
Web surfing for cruise ships, Doug encountered Nippon Maru, a real-life (and still floating!) Japanese cruise ship. The rest is Doug’s vibrantly-coloured, intricately detailed and whimsically animated tale.
“Of the 47 passengers, two humans survive on an island, but only for a short time. When they are gone the island becomes a much more lively and vivid place.”
In the wake of Nippon Maru’s fall 2010 premiere, Doug also anticipates 27 x Doug, Gallery One’s retrospective of Larry Glawson’s work capturing the couple’s decades together. 27 x Doug will feature images of Doug that cover a span of 27 years.
For this optimist adrift in a life rife with art, that’s just business as usual. “All of your experience is part of your project,” he affirms.
Doug Melnyk’s work is represented by O’Connor Gallery in Toronto.
Nippon Maru
etching
artist: Doug Melnyk
posted by Robert Sim at 11:49 AM
<< Home