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Meet the Artist
Questions and Answers for Parents, Teachers, and other Big Kids

Chicago artist Thomas Melvin designed and painted the City Science Mural.

Mr. Melvin can be reached at:
Thomas Melvin Painting Studio
3243 W. Lawrence Ave.
Chicago, IL 60625-5222

At left, muralist Thomas Melvin visits the Nature Museum for an interview about the mural.

On Murals As Architecture
Q: The idea behind this interview is to learn more about how you got involved, what sort of style you have as a muralist, and about what you tried to bring to the City Science Mural.
A: Well, the mural site was to be a rectangular area within this larger wall and I looked at that and said, "Why not go to the edges, top and bottom?" . . . my thought in that was that it really needs to tie itself to the architecture and to provide a full statement, you know, it wasn't going to be a picture hanging on the wall, it was much more about being a part of the building as such.

On the Role of Murals in Museums
Q: What did you try to bring to the mural in this setting?
A: I hope to like to think that I could bring something a little more idiosyncratic or whimsical to it that wouldn't be what you'd ordinarily expect in a museum setting. And provide an amenity that wasn't overly didactic too. Sometimes I think that the museums can become almost too hard hitting on these explanations . . . So it's always fun to put these murals that are hopefully well executed and there for free for the public to view . . . no strings attached (laughs).

At right, Museum visitors enjoy the mural from the balcony of the City Science exhibit.

On the Subject of Environmental Interconnectedness (Connections Between the Home and the Environment)
Q: Were there sessions where people talked about . . . what objects would be in here or did they look to you for a first, sort of a first sketch and then it went back and forth, back and forth? What was the work process like?
A: Yeah, we talked about in a very broad way . . . how the city engages the natural world and its resources and . . . of course, the subject was giant . . . I didn't have to show exactly where and how the water comes to your glass . . . because the museum would be able to dedicate an entire exhibit to just that aspect if they wanted, and similarly gas, electric, the depth of the city . . . how deep it goes below the ground and all those things . . . . The actual reality of it is not accurately portrayed, per sense, but the subjective or the idea is there, you know. In other words, we know that there are these layers and so it's more of a visual play to create that illusion of space and height.

On the Origin of Some of the Objects in the Mural
Q: What was the inspiration for some of the objects?
A: You know, I actually did the silhouette of my gas meter at home pretty exactly, although I altered it to fit compositional needs. [For the water faucet] I used our old faucet, which was from the 20s, at home as a model because I loved it . . . you know it's a great eccentric shape, it's such an organic way to treat water through those balls that regulate speed . . . it's really a product of that time, the engineering of it . . . and I thought that ought to be saved, somehow, for people to see. It's a rare faucet these days (laughs), you know?

And uh, oh gosh, other things are from my own house. The tea kettle is ours, from Chinatown, and it's just a simple tea kettle . . . whistling kettle, actually. I think they called it a harmonica kettle. It has an odd hum when the water boils, but uh (laughs), and so that's what that is. The steam coming out of the spout revealing the political map of the city, which is yet another system that shapes things, you know. And that's the simplification of it, obviously, not a true picture of it. And I used . . . admittedly I just used those things somewhat as graphic devices to move the eye around the whole thing here.

At left, the photo study Thom made of his own teapot. The city shadow was created by proping up peices of wood in front of the light source.

On the Length and Manner of the Work Process
Q: How long did the project take from start to finish? And how many people were involved, how many artists?
A: Well, there were several artists involved in the execution; I was involved solely, of course, with the design and configuration of things. When it came time to painting it, I had help from some skilled painters who helped me paint it. Gary Borremans, Cameron Pfiffner, Derek Wolf, Greg Weber, and myself all painted it. So, it took several hands, and then ultimately it didn't take that long with many hands working on it. I can't recall exactly. Probably six weeks plus . . . all told . . . So it [took] . . . six weeks maybe, plus? And then we hung it in one day. It was done on pieces of canvas and we came, we scaffolded up and hung it and a couple days later took the scaffolding down after we had varnished it with a light varnish. It is oil . . . on canvas; I like to work with oils. It's just what I'm accustomed to working with. Others could do the same thing with acrylic, really, that's not a big issue. It will age a little differently than acrylic . . . it will have a patina over time. But it also will last . . . beautifully!

On References to Earlier Styles of Murals
Q: Were you given guidance about a certain style or a certain look as far as tying into the W.P.A. [Works Progress Administration] tradition or anything like that?
A: I think that that was always in the back of the minds of the architects and other people who saw a place for a mural . . . they always think of those precedents of the W.P.A. They think of the . . . but ultimately what I proposed maybe didn't look exactly like that . . . and yet it, you know, it's still in that tradition, it's still a mural made for a site for a client, but it's contemporary.

On the History and "Mystery" of the Murals and Diaromas in the Chicago Academy of Sciences When It Occupied the Laflin Memorial Building
Q: Had you ever seen the old museum on Clark?
A: Yeah, very fond of the old museum and looking up at the underside of the canoe and those were wonderful [exhibits]. You know, here it was the Chicago Academy of Sciences and those dioramas and those painters . . . they were excellent and responsible for inspiring countless painters, really . . . I mean, because of the sheer juiciness and ability of those painters, they really succeeded in getting that manner of representation out there and showing how effective it was. And I think painting has the ability to allow the imagination a little more freedom, you know, than any photograph ever will, really . . . in terms of . . . just because there's a lot of subjective sort of decision[making] . . . or, rather, subjective decisions that the viewer brings to it . . . and the artist . . . everybody sort of brings their own way of looking at it, and that starts other people thinking differently, it's . . . .

And the edges aren't as sharp, always there are sort of these question marks in areas that allow the imagination some freedom. That's why those dioramas, I think, were so effective. The guys couldn't help themselves but add a little mystery to the scene, you know? Versus now if you get these scientific illustrations, sometimes, the ones that are done with such rectitude and exactitude are often rather barren or cold, they don't leave the imagination the freedom it needs. I think in teaching anything you need to leave a lot of questions, you know, a lot of wonder, really.

At right, a detail of the small-scale oil painting Thom completed to evaluate his chosen color scheme before completing the large City Science Mural.

On Interpreting the Mural and "Getting All the Objects In"
Q: How did you go about planning the composition?

A: You make certain plans . . . or you start out thinking that way. In other words, you think, "I've gotta get all this stuff in," but when it comes time to arranging it, it's really a juggling match of composition and how the images . . . what you think should have dominance. For me, the glass of water was kind of the . . . I think . . . a starting point.

At left, the composition of the City Science Mural is divided into grid squares to help transfer the composition to the large surface of the mural.

I think it's kind of like the essential element of life for us . . . we need this water (laughs), you know? And it's composed, of . . . the simplest elements, and is all important. So I started there in a way and then steam and ice and then . . . but . . . and then the Mississippi River was kind of the fun idea just to have it as a perspective out of the manhole cover-where our water goes and our watershed. But . . . and so you start with something and then you get attached to that and then you play with certain things, certain favorite things. I like the coal tar forest in the gas meter as a thought.

On Environmental Messages and the State of the Planet
Q: Are there particular environmental messages in the mural?
A: Well, we didn't want to make it too obvious, you know, why we need to sweep up the garbage (pointing to the mural) so it doesn't flow down the sewers. We didn't want to get too heavy handed with those kinds of messages. The world is still a pretty place . . . let's keep it that way. You could get pretty serious about a mural like this in terms of what you're showing about how we [treat the planet] . . . in our endeavor to supply ourselves with things. So that was a juggling match too . . . we didn't want to get too heavy with that kind of message per se . . . as much as we believe it and know it's the truth.

On the "Attractive Limitations" of Painted Murals
Q: With all the digital technology of today, why a painted mural?
A: To your [the Academy's] credit here you did not go for a digitally realized mural, which you could have . . . of some images . . . you guys could have made it up in your photo shop, you know, and then had it printed and applied it to the wall. And lots of museums are doing that now. And I don't . . . I think that there's great possibilities there [in digital work]. It, again, is just the skill of collage and techniques and using the medium for what it is . . . there's definitely a way to do that [digital imaging], but you will lose "the hand" a bit, you're gonna . . . you'll lose the handwork, which, is attractive in its sort of limitations, in a funny way. I think that's it, you know . . . I sort of . . . you can see the naiveté in some of the painting, or sort of the problems of representation, but that sort of makes it interesting in a sense. Or the problem of depicting water splashing into a glass getting simplified . . . . You know, there are tricks there.

On Advice to Elementary Students Doing Art of Their Own and Collage as "Poetry in Action"
Q: If you were going to tell elementary kids . . . if you were going to talk to them about doing their own art or if they wanted to do a mural project at their school or just do collage, what would you say to kids who were interested in art and wanted to do something that brought together a lot of elements like this?

A: Well. I think we'd really have some organizing idea, something that we were depicting, even if it was just our school life or something . . . you know, some broad topic, you name it. And so then we would know among ourselves who was kind of the class cut-up or who was this and that, or who liked this and that. And then you would . . . and a teacher knows her student's abilities, and a good teacher will have her students do accordingly and find a place for them. You know, there are some kids who don't like to draw, or others who take it too far . . . there's all different . . . but there's a place for them, there's a way to enter them in and . . . I would just have to play that by ear when I got there.

At right, another detail from Thom's preparatory oil painting.

Of course, it's hard for me not being the teacher coming in. But I have taught classes before and, again, just like I know my own painters who work with me, you get to know people and what they enjoy doing and you try to find a place for them and shape the mural accordingly. You're angling maybe toward thinking how to recommend that as a project?

Q continued: Yeah, or just . . . if students were interested in doing a collage or something like that . . . is there a good place for them to start? I think you mentioned a theme, an overall theme . . . . For young kids who like to do art or maybe make collages, is there any guidance?
A continued: Well, collage is wonderful sort of poetry in action in a way because it often . . . you'll see associations that you wouldn't ordinarily in two things. You can put the dragonfly with a gas meter and suddenly they become related in a way that you may not have seen. Now, somebody could have taken a picture or a photograph of a dragonfly that had lit on a gas meter, and if it were photographed in such and such a way then the same image would come across, but otherwise it would just be a dragonfly sitting on something, you know. Here you force the issue. You make him bigger and you put the coal tar forest there [in the meter]. But similarly, I think collages provide this surprising sort of poetry sometimes. And just because the things are put one on top of the other they have to relate, and they have to relate in different terms almost compositionally, aesthetically, texturally, color wise, or you know? Sometimes collage . . . you just cut through newspapers for the color red . . . and it may come from somebody's dress, it may come from a car, it may come from a big red letter, or lots of red letters, but you can still use it as red . . . just red, things like that. Or you see sand and you just like that grainy quality and you combine that with something else pebbly until finally you have this whole mass of textures, all from different sources that you wouldn't think about this as texture visually, but it works that way when you put it in a collage.

On the Artist's Final Thoughts About the Mural and It Being "Mysterious Enough"
Q: I was wondering if there's something that you're most proud of, either in the finished work or in the process?

A: Well, I think that the, I think this project came out nicely. I'm pleased with the color. I did say that I wish we could get back a little further from it because I think that some of the larger motion or the gestures of the piece, compositionally, are not as readily apparent unless you stand back, but all in all, I think it's mysterious enough. That it isn't quite what you expected. And that . . . I think . . . is good. It remains a question mark. It does lend itself to puzzling. It isn't, it doesn't . . . it allows you to sort of explore around in it, which . . . that was my endeavor, too . . . . I didn't want to get too specific about things. So I was pleased that the museum allowed that to happen, you know?

At left, another detail from Thom's preparatory oil painting.


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