Lesley Smitheringale Fine Art

Featured Artists - Mel Kadel and Travis Millard

Friday, December 28th, 2007

I have recently discovered these two talented artists whose artworks and living abode are both quite beautiful and alternative.

I first stumbled upon Mel Kadel, originally from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania but now living in Los Angeles, and took an immediate liking to her work as she seems to have an innate ability to sum up, quite charmingly, our everday emotions and human circumstances in her gorgeous sketches using pen, ink & graphite onto stained, collaged papers.

Mel used to skip school in Pennsylvania where she grew up but ended up at Moore College of Art school, then moved around some before she ended up in a log cabin by the 5 freeway with her partner and fellow artist, Travis Millard, in the hills of Ecko Park in LA. “A guy got shot in the face in our doorway in the 80s. I heard Steely Dan lived here. It used to be a Hells Angels camp. Our kitchen is a stagecoach they built onto the cabin in the 20s. Hemingway used to finish novels in the cabin across from us. It smells like an old stove. It’s Kind of a weird spot.” Mel’s partner, Travis Millard said.

Some of Mel’s artwork below:

l to r: “Carrying the Load” and “What you see from a Tree”

“The Wall”

Mel Kadel’s work can be viewed and purchased at Richard Heller Gallery

This then led me to then explore Mel’s partner, Travis Hillard’s work and the two of them, I must say, do work in a similar fashion but with their own unique personalities coming across, of course. Travis runs a site called Fudge Factory Comics and has a book coming out called “Hey Fudge”. Hillard also produces artwork for Vans, Bueno Skateboards and Volcom. His art pieces are “multi layered and repetitive, both quiet and contemplative in form and screaming at you, beating you senselessly over the head until you get the idea, after which you start laughing hysterically.” Hillard is mainly influenced by what is going on in his daily life which echoes what his parter, Mel Kadel is also doing in her artwork. Travis actually admits that Mel and he “bounce questions and advice back and forth a lot and have done a lot of collaborative drawing together but mostly we don’t get all scribbly on each other’s stuff”.

tagged under: Art.artists.comics.featured artists.fudge factory comics.hey fudge.ink.mel kadel.paper.pen.richard heller gallery.sketches.travis hilliard