Mello finds art in urban landscape

“Rather than a solitary pursuit, art in Somerville is a public good,” said Elizabeth Hunter, Mello's longtime friend and Somerville's Theatre@First artistic director. “Rachel has been instrumental in forging bonds between the artists themselves and with the wider community.”

Mello, 43, who moved to Somerville 12 years ago, began her career by painting murals in private homes and public spaces like the USS Constitution Museum in Charlestown. But she felt like a painter for hire, with not enough sense of herself in the work.

Then, in 2004, Mello's mother died, providing a “wake-up call" for Mello to pursue projects that are meaningful. In 2007, she didn’t show her work during the open studio event. Instead, she visited the other local artists.

"I was floored by the breadth and caliber of work I saw,” she said.

These events pushed Mello to hone her techniques in a medium she had been developing since 2000 that combines photography, painting, and printmaking – not to mention a little bit of carpentry. Focusing on urban details that are both appreciated and overlooked, she starts with an original photograph, transfers it to a hard, wooden board, and cuts it into a silhouette.

The silhouette is then rolled with ink, used as a stamp to make prints, and later painted. The cut silhouette is usually painted in a nature or sky scene. Sometimes, she'll also overlay other materials on the prints to make a collage.

"Her hardboard silhouettes and prints condense the unexpected beauty of urban moments," said Hunter, "layering them into pieces that combine a specificity of place and a universality of emotion."

Mello grew up in Baltimore. She earned a bachelor’s degree in architecture from the Rhode Island School of Design and later a master's from Brandeis University in theater arts and scenic painting in 1996.

Mello worked out of her home for about four years after graduate school, but eventually felt something was missing. “I really needed to be around other people who thought of themselves as artists,” she said.

So, she took space in Somerville’s Washington Street Art Center, a complex of 20 artist studios, galleries, and performance space. Three years later, she moved to her current location at Mad Oyster Studios, in Gilman Square.

Gregory Jenkins, the executive director of the city's arts council, said Mello’s story is typical. Somerville's old industrial buildings and warehouses provide a variety of low-cost workspaces, attracting artists like Mello and helping to create a community that nurtures young talent.

Mello's studio, 600 square feet with 12-foot ceilings, appears a cross between an artist’s workshop and a health club. Near the entrance is a mini-gallery of her prints and paintings; in the back are drawing, cutting and painting stations. A set of free weights is stacked next to a home gym. An inflated exercise ball sits atop a shelf.

An empty white wall provides the ideal backstop for perfecting handstands. Mello kicks her legs up and holds the handstand for as long as she can. Back on her feet, she practices free kicks on the worn wood floor, part of an exercise regimen that mixes music, dance, and martial arts.

“It's too easy to get stuck in my head," Mello said, explaining the importance of her workout. “I need to bring myself back to my body."

Mello is petite, with fiery orange-red hair. She makes a habit of salvaging tables, chairs, workbenches, and storage units headed for the junkyard and re-routes them to her studio. Recently, she rescued about 15 easels and repaired them for teaching summer classes outdoors.

"I really enjoy teaching," said Mello. "I like the connection to a world bigger than my own ideas."

When she's not teaching or painting, Mello serves on the Somerville Open Studios’ board of directors. At first, she viewed the annual event primarily as a way to sell art. Now she realizes it has a more important purpose: making artists visible.
The visibility may increase, too, Mello said. The recession, which has led many people to reassess priorities, is making consumers more interested in unique works by local artists than mass produced pieces sold in chain stores.

“People are paying attention to local arts the way they might not have before," she said.

Mello plans to soon start work on her first large-scale piece in years - a 60-by-40-inch silhouette. She continues to turn out prints of her original art, a way to make the most of the painstaking process of cutting silhouettes, which can take five to 50 hours to cut just one. She also makes the most of materials; cast-off pieces and imperfect prints are used in collages.

"I'm trying,” she says, “to tap into every little bit of what I do.”

Lauren Keiper is a graduate journalism student at Boston University. She can be reached at lkeiper@bu.edu.