Ladies of a Certain Age

Kreh Mellick is sitting in her studio leafing through a book about crinolines from the 1800s. "It sounds so cliché to say this, but I really love that whole Victorian-era thing," she says, pointing to a black-and-white photograph of a woman clad in a corseted dress of dark satin and stripes. "It's all just so spooky to me."

It's easy to see why the antique images would fascinate Mellick. Her own gouache paintings on paper call up various gloomy eras — folklore about New England Puritans, sea captains, witch trials, homesteaders, provincial mistresses and the lovesick wives of sailors lost at sea. They are, as Mellick says, "stories appropriated from memory, folktales, traditions and nostalgia."

Read more: Ladies of a Certain Age by Ursula Gullow Boldlife Magazine Dec. 2010

Kreh Mellick's sublime simplicity

Local artist Kreh Mellick currently has her drawings on display at Tod's Tasties on Montford Avenue near downtown Asheville. Her haunted folklore is rendered in sinewy forms interacting with pattern and confident details -- such as in the beard of "The Sea Captain" and the hair of "The Sea Captain's wife."

What fascinates me about Mellick's work is all of the the empty space surrounding each form --while it contributes to the visual lightness of the work, it also provides an emotional weight. In a sense the empty space becomes it's own character -- every bit as important as the ones she has rendered.

Visit Melick's blog to see more work: krehstorrs.blogspot.com