Mel’s artwork, done almost exclusively in micron pens and ink washes on coffee-stained paper, will tickle your amygdala

There was a thread that bound kids like Mel Kadel, growing up in the suburbs outside of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. “Every kid I knew there had one thing in common, which was to get out of that town as soon as they graduated from high school.” The dull landscape of strip malls nudged her along, first for a short time in New York City, where nothing clicked.

“I made a very blind move to LA,” she explains, “I got a job as a receptionist and made drawings at night. It was a shocking move. I didn't know the city, didn't have any friends, and swore I wouldn't stay more than a year. That was 11 years ago.” Today, she and fellow artist Travis Millard share a cabin high atop a hill in Echo Park, with drawing desks a few feet apart. With a little wood stove and a rustic feel, it’s the kind of urban retreat perfect for a self-barricading writing session with an acoustic guitar, or for this pair of artists to work.

Spacing Awake.

Mel’s artwork, done almost exclusively in micron pens and ink washes on coffee-stained paper, immediately seemed to tickle my amygdala, an uncanny blend of the special artwork stored in my back-brain childhood. “Shel Silverstein was my favorite,” she says, “I would read his books over and over. The drawings and stories were a perfect balance or weird, dark, and funny.” As in the line drawings of the great, weird poet and storyteller, there’s a tension in Mel’s work, too. Her characters – a company of actors in similar garb in tableaux of action – are pushing, pulling, riding, rising, often against great, ornate quilts on the verge of becoming their own animal and force.

Falling in Line. 

Along with her successful studio art practice, Mel’s managed to keep her hands in zine-making, a most labor-intensive and non-remunerative art form – especially when one prints them on paper lovingly coffee-stained by hand and distributing her small-run zines by hand or via Travis’ Fudge Factory Comics. Should you find yourself in Sydney in March, look for Mel and Travis at the Semi Permanent Conference in Sydney, Australia. While the thought of it, she says “makes me nervous, it'll be a great honor.” –by Caleb Neelon / Hurley Art

For more, go to melkadel.com