John Melillo's Art Evolves with 'Hampton Castle'

This week’s Dan’s Papers cover art represents an exciting new direction for prolific Eastport artist and Vietnam veteran John Melillo. The painter began walking the creative path after he was plagued by difficult and long-suppressed memories of his military service following retirement. He was diagnosed with PTSD, and art became his solace. Now, Melillo has become a beloved figure in the local veterans community, and his art continues to find more venues and accolades throughout the East End and beyond. We spoke to him about all this, his “Hampton Castle” cover painting, and more.

A Conversation with John Melillo

Tell me about this piece and the unique way it’s made.

Here’s my theory. I painted a “Hampton Castle,” and everybody should have a Hamptons castle. I did it with a lot of texture. I use a lot of 3D type of pumice. I use glass beads in it. I threw everything in there: Galkyd so it’s not just oil and paint. It has a lot of consistencies with a lot of different material so that it would be 3D and come alive. And it’s a big painting, it’s 3 by 4 feet. So if you ever saw it, I think you’d be impressed by it, just the way it’s constructed.

How did you find your way to painting a surreal sandcastle after all your time creating more “real” scenes from Vietnam and the East End? Your technique has evolved significantly since you started.

I was painting landscapes and seascapes, and water and boats and things like that, and I love to do that. But there are so many good artists out there who do that, and everybody’s doing the same thing — either they do abstract art, or they do contemporary realism based upon dunes and things. I’m in an area that nobody’s in right now that I know of. I wanted to keep the East End scene there, but I wanted to be a little bit more creative with it. I’m not sure people know how to take it, but once it’s taken, it’s going to explode. I have about 20 paintings in line of different things that nobody’s ever seen, and they’ll all have an East End bite, but you’ll see them as they’re coming. Maybe it’s a throwback to all the things we did in the ’60s, all the way-out, psychedelic things. I’m focusing on abstract surrealism with a Rockwell/Van Gogh feeling with my own twist to it, and I’m having fun with it. All my paintings tell stories.

I see your stuff all over the place and you’re staying very busy with shows and projects. What are you up to now?

I’d would like to start doing a lot more gallery work, and working with  designers, and doing different types of project-oriented things. We’ve got three pieces going in the Jay Mackey gallery in East Hampton. We’re trying to work on other galleries. I would like to be in more of them. So that’s my push. And these are the paintings that I think will get us there. But beyond all that, we’re doing a lot of things with the veterans.

I’m up at Westhampton Library. I’m in the entrance as you walk in to represent for Veterans Day. I’m also, this Thursday (November 6), doing a slide talk presentation of my perspective on the East End. In Hampton Bays library, we just put up 35 paintings and, I believe on November 13, it is going to do a salute to soldiers and a luncheon, so all the soldiers will be in that room, and I’ll give a two-minute speech, and all my paintings will be there.

Anybody can see them, but the reason for that one specific day, November 13, they’re going to have a veteran luncheon where they invited all of the VFWs and American Legions to come in. And I’ll be represented as a veteran, as a solo show in there right now for that date, and I’ll give a little two-minute spiel. Then we’re going to be in Islip Arts where we’re doing a veterans show where they’re bringing in a 20-piece band and all the local legislators and the Air Force is involved, and everybody else. I’m going to be one of the featured artists, and I’m going to have about 25 paintings up for that.

In December, in Half Hollow Hills Library, I’ll be putting up another 40 paintings on a lot of easels, and they’re going to bring in all the veterans and the local legislators that day. So that should be a pretty big thing.

You’ve accomplished so much over the last few years. What are your goals moving forward?

We’d love to be in a gallery in Sag Harbor. We’d like to be in one in East Hampton. We like to show at the Southampton Arts Center and Southampton Cultural Center. I wouldn’t mind being in three or four galleries. And then we would like to work with the designers that do Hamptons houses. We’re talking to them as we speak. They have a holiday house they do every year where an architect comes in those 14,000-square-foot houses and brings in a bunch of designers to design each room. So we’re talking to two or three designers about doing that, as well as doing art commercially for the regular houses in the Hamptons. We’re trying to stay East End. That’s our key. That’s where we were raised, that’s where we live, that’s where we’re going to die. I already have my plot in the Sacred Heart Cemetery in Southampton, so that’s where we’re going to stay forever.

Learn more about John Melillo and his work, including where to see it in-person at artfeelingsjm.com.