Meet the Artists of ALIVE: Dave Mele

by | Jul 29, 2013 | Stories

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Meet Dave Mele

Where does your creative impulse stem from and if it varies, what triggers it?

Creative Impulse…thats a much better name for it, I just call it “the urge.”

I’ve been drawing my entire life. Its always been something I’ve done since I was little, so its a normal part of life for me. I don’t know anything else. Its like an unbreakable habit or even more like a natural part of life. Like an eat, sleep, draw kinda thing. Its something I NEED to do to live the way that I choose to live. But like I said, its always been this way and I don’t know the difference so I don’t even notice. Its second nature to me.

As of now, I’m lucky enough to be in an environment which calls for constant creativity. There’s no “on” and “off” anymore, its just always “on”…all the time. Which is really awesome because it gives me the chance to grow and get better at what I do. Before this, NOT drawing for a period of time would eventually lead to the triggering. It would build up inside of me until IHAD to paint/draw/create something. Its like an inner pressure-beast that needs to be let out. Also seeing other artists work that blows my mind always gives me inspiration. Old and new.

If you could change one thing about your artistic career so far, what would it be?

One thing I wish I did was taken it more serious sooner in life. I wish I threw caution to the wind and took a chance 10 years ago instead of more recently. Someone once told me “Doing what you really want to (in the creative fields) is not going to work out because so many other people are doing it and flooding the market” or something of that nature. Well, they were wrong and I shouldn’t have listened to them. Sure there may be a ton of people trying to make it in a creative field, but not all of them have the will power and determination that you need to succeed. Its a double edged sword, sure I get to be creative and at the same time make some kind of living from it but I also never get to clock out. Its great though, I like to work hard at something that I love doing. Its a good feeling when you push yourself and it turns out better than you expected.

What medium would you like to try that you haven’t?

I would like to try clay sculpture, or something like that. I think that would be awesome, to work on something three-dimentional.

Does the artist or the art have more of a role in society?

This is a hard one that can be debated until your blue in the face. I feel like in todays society its all about image and media exploitation. So if someone has the right look and fits in with the hollywood standard ect, it doesnt matter what kind of art they are doing or to what caliber, they are going to be rich and famous because they are the packaged deal for the media to sell. Then be forgotten about two months later when the next flavor of the month shows up. The same goes for music these days. You dont see any “unattractive” singers/bands, but they’re totally out there, and are much more talented. Its really stupid and I’m not into it at all. Everything is backwards. The good thing about it though is that people know this is what it has become and get fed up and take it upon themselves to do something about it and put on shows like this one. Which will hopefully spawn more people do stuff like this and keep the ball rolling and rolling.

The art is what is important, thats what is going to stand the test of time long after the artist is gone and forgotten. Art is meant to be seen, music meant to be heard, but now I think these days there’s too much emphasis on WHO made this? WHO wrote that? It doesnt matter (as much)… all that matters is THAT it was made. If that makes any sense. There’s a documentary out there (i forget the name) about an artist that was constantly putting out work and getting no recognition for these great paintings, he got some bad reviews from critics that didnt like him for whatever reason, so he started putting out the same stuff under a different name and no one knew who he was and he just exploded! Everyone wanted his paintings, not even realizing it was this same guy that the same people werent into a week ago. Thats how things go these days I guess. Nothing you can do but keep on going, doing what you do. Take it into your own hands and just make awesome stuff. Put in the time and see what happens.

Please join us for ALIVE
on Friday August 2
at the Chris White Gallery
701 N. Shipley St.
Wilmington, DE
from 5:30 to 9:30

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David Norbut