About
Mel Ahlborn
The art of seeing lies beyond our sense of sight.
For Mel Ahlborn, Threshold Is The Ultimate Source Of Creative Inquiry
The American artist’s passion for crafting art that prompts experiences of insight, memory, and the occasional revelation, is on full display in her Carmel studio.
“The act of seeing is not limited to our sense of sight. It is a dynamic blend of what is before our eyes, filtered through and engaged with our experience and our expectation, a combining of the seen and the unseen. My paintings aim to share this dynamic interaction with my viewers using paint, canvas, and symbol.” - Mel Ahlborn
At Home In A Modern Artist Colony
Strolling through the quiet roads of this seaside village, tucked into a white sand cove of California’s central coast, it’s as if you’ve stepped back in time. This storybook artist colony continues to pulse with the vibrant love of beauty and craftsmanship that attracted its original settlers some 250 years ago. After passing vintage hotels and flower-strewn cafes, entering Ahlborn’s art studio feels as though you have crossed into a new way of seeing the world. The New Jersey-born artist’s large canvases, made with oil paint and gold leaf, line her walls. Remnants of projects past and present share space with Ahlborn’s sketches and color trials for paintings that are yet to be.
In the world that Mel Ahlborn illustrates with her art, what we see, the visible, hints towards tangibilities of what we do not see. The liminal appears in her paintings as fluid and glistening, with colors both subtle and rich. Languid figures, some winged, coexist in parallel planes while piercing thresholds of perception.
Canvas, oil paint, and brush strokes are her primary tools of approach. Gold leaf, usually genuine, makes the occasional appearance in her work. Ahlborn credits the beautiful churches of her childhood as an early source of her interest in the thresholds of liminal spaces. “Growing up, I was surrounded by adults who had strong beliefs in an unseen mystery. This had a profound effect on me. I was always asking myself what it was that they knew that I did not. I wanted what they had.” Illuminated manuscripts, Crivelli and Mantegna, the Pre-Raphaelites, GF Watts, and the occasional Symbolist all undergird the inspiration that fuels Ahlborn’s creativity. “The intricacy of medieval manuscripts intrigued me from an early age - why would a culture so deprived of human comforts spend so many precious resources (gold leaf, lapis lazuli, vellum) on the creation and replication of ancient texts?”
Like a true contemporary artist, Ahlborn’s work presents what interests her most. A frequently commissioned artist, when on her own time she freely experiments with visual methods of creative inquiry. Ahlborn nods to her parents for their generous gift of education, and credits them for encouraging her curiosity. Her undergraduate studies in chemistry and classics were completed at Tufts University, and Boston’s MFA was a frequent Saturday break from coursework. After a move to Los Angeles, the Getty Villa became her go-to for inspiration and education.
Painting the Unseen
Ahlborn’s figurative painting professor Mark Tennant would say, “Paint what you see, and also paint what you know.” This fits well with her own approach to fine art, which employs traditional fine art painting methods and materials to create modern visual representations of ancient cultural themes.
“The eye hungers to make sense of what lies before it.”
~ David N Perkins, In The Intelligent Eye
With a deep appreciation for the monastic practices of prayer and meditation, Ahlborn says of her work, “I am immersed in the dichotomy of the seen and the unseen, and the artistic challenge of presenting both in a single work of art.”
For more information about current work or commissioning new work, contact Mel Ahlborn at Illumination Studio by email, mel@illumination.studio .