John Melville

Having grown up in Detroit, I feel an attachment to the automobile. Even though Detroit steel was in my backyard, I always preferred the cars of Europe because of their other worldliness and design sensibility. Postcards From the Autobahn is a series based on these cars.Its geometric abstraction done with an imperfect precision using ink and gouache on found images. My process is simple, I begin with German postcards that are newer reproductions of vintage advertising but are now in fact vintage themselves. I then draw lines using rapidograph pens, add gouache, diamond dust, colored pencil or shredded currency. I tend to either make the featured image from the original graphic pop or will completely obscure it with ink or paint. I try to get the feel of the movement or lines of the original image and either mimic it or contradict it.