Melle Dobbins

I grew up in Memphis, TN with a passion for words and writing, and a burning desire to be as good at the visual arts as my older brother. Alas, that wasn't in the cards for young Melle. My loose joints, lack of grace, and inability to exactly translate the pictures in my head to the page at my fingertips was too much for my years. I focused on writing. By the age of 11 I had returned to dabbling in the form of fashion sketches, notebook doodles, and a perfectly translated drawing (and re-drawing) of a cartoon puppy that I called, Fred. This light dabbling, more or less, continued for the next (mumble mumble) years until I had the brilliant idea to start my own skincare company. (Didn't expect that, did you?) A large part of this start up came from my innate, and somewhat insane, need to be able to do things my damned self. This included all publicity, design, branding, label making, etc... for my business. And so, I once again squared up against my love/hate relationship with visual arts. The skincare company had a good run for a startup, but eventually floundered because, as it turns out, it's really REALLY hard to do it all your damned self. Four years of being the marketing department, however, had finally given me the tools that I needed to make real art, and real designs.

 

I am entirely self taught, (youtube, blogs, Lynda, messing around with it until it does what I want) but I feel that I have crafted a unique style that is very much my own. I've also discovered a real love of collaboration. A lifetime of trying to interpret the images in my own brain has left me uniquely qualified to understand and create the visions of others. I genuinely love that particular brand of symbiosis, creating beautiful things, and finally being as good as my older brother. Take that, Hazel!!