Hints about Sam Meléndez’s process can be gleaned from what’s visible on the artist’s canvases—and what isn’t.
“I sketch everything with charcoal and make notes to myself on the canvas,” says the 47-year-old self-taught painter. Then, he either develops the idea or simply dusts away the charcoal and moves on.
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This desire to share traces of his progress on canvas took hold after Meléndez captured one photo of a painting with the markings, another one without them, and realized how much he preferred the first. “I loved it,” he says. “I like to see the process, including the notes that I make to myself.”
By making his progression public, the artist offers up a dialogue with the viewer, revealing the evolution of his ideas and creating works that are honest and multifaceted. “When I finish a lot of my paintings, I know that I’m done, but there are others I keep looking at because something is missing. It bothers me, so I paint over them with the intention of leaving the old painting in the background. That’s why you see the layers.”
Originally from Puerto Rico, Meléndez moved to St. Louis in 1999. He tended bar at Chez Leon in the Central West End and decorated his city apartment with blank white canvases. Eventually he decided to add something to those canvases. Without any training or experience, he bought oil paints and got to work. When he was finished, he placed the paintings around his apartment, not knowing that the works would still be wet weeks later. Soon after this discovery, he says, he transitioned to acrylic paint, which dries in less than 30 minutes: “I have very little patience.”
Never expecting to build a career from his hobby, Meléndez began working as a fitness trainer and made art in his spare time. Then a client from the gym commissioned a piece. “I thought he was just being nice,” he says. “I had been to this guy’s house, and he has a beautiful art collection.” When the client commissioned a second work, Meléndez started to think that maybe he could do more with his new sideline. Nineteen years later, he’s still creating art.
Meléndez’ current paintings play with abstraction: legs are elongated, colors are heightened, subjects are full of whimsy. In one work, he toys with the word pez. More than the name of a candy dispenser, it also means fish in Spanish. In another work, he paints a monkey holding a cigarette, wearing a black-and-white–striped shirt. It’s a play on a photo of the artist Pablo Picasso.
Meléndez finds inspiration in everyday conversations, news articles, and travel. He has no interest in mimicking what others have done. “I love art, but as much as I respect artists, I would never try to imitate their work,” he says.
In a recent work, titled “Epilogue,” Meléndez depicts a man seated at a pinball machine, cigar in hand and a vintage typewriter and a bottle of Vermut within reach.
The colors–soft pink, mint green, shades of aqua–are a nod to his Puerto Rican roots, he says: “I love using pink. I love the contrast of the pink with the messy charcoal. People usually identify pink with being cute and feminine. I like to contrast that with the harsh dark.”
Meléndez painted for years before he felt comfortable calling himself an artist. “I felt weird saying that I’m an artist. It’s a word that artists with training are protective of, and I respect that,” he says, “but nothing gives me more satisfaction than painting.”
The artist will mount his first show in October at Houska Gallery.
