Melanie Stimmell
Encyclopedia
Melanie Stimmell Van Latum, born March 24, 1975 in Los Angeles
, is an International 3D street painter
and Fine Artist Specializing in Large Scale Collaborative Projects and Renaissance style inspired Artistry.
A signature member of the Pastel Society of America, she began
street painting in 1998 and has painted at festivals throughout the United States
and internationally. Melanie Stimmell is an internationally recognized street painter, working with clients in Turkey
, Holland, Canada
, France
, The Netherlands Antilles, and throughout the US. Commissioned by corporations and advertising agencies for special events, performance art
and interactive media
which includes TV, film
, and print
, Stimmell's street paintings convey the spirit of creativity, art, and culture.
with a degree in Illustration
and was she was trained as an oil painter and digital media
artist. After graduating she worked as a lead technical director for the feature film South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut
and then for the South Park
TV series for 8 years. In 1999, while at South Park, she began street painting
for festivals in the United States including the I Madonnari Festival in Santa Barbara
. In 2006 she was commissioned to create the festival's 20th Anniversary featured painting at the steps of the Mission Santa Barbara
. She was chosen as one of 3 American artists to paint in Istanbul
, Turkey for their first street painting festival in 2004. Having painted for several cultural events in Holland, Melanie returned in the summer of 2007 to work with an international group of street painters from Italy, Germany, and Holland to paint a tribute to the churches and cathedrals of Utrecht
. Stimmell's painting, 'The Entombment', was on display in the Augustinus church of Utrecht.
In 2009, under the artistic direction of Melanie Stimmell, Expressions in Chalk Street painting Festival Expressions in Chalk Street Painting Festival
in London, Canada London, Ontario
, recreated the Central Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel at 18 x 92 feet. Stimmell also worked as a featured artist on the 2002 San Rafael Sistine Chapel Project. Since then, Melanie has secured her Maestro status in Europe with her second win in Holland and the highest honor a street painter is bestowed, Italy's Maestro Gold Medal in Grazie di Curtatone
. Always evolving, Stimmell has brought the Renaissance tradition of street painting into the 21st century with new media integration. Now her most prominent events can be seen online via live stream
.
galleries under her married name, Melanie Van Latum. For the past 11 years Stimmell has been creating asphalt masterpieces and leading workshops for cultural and children's charity events around the world including Youth in arts
, Children's Creative Project, Larimer Arts Association, Bakersfield Museum of Art Educational
Programs, New Technology High School
, Kayoo, Imadon Group, Visual Arts Scholastic Event, Les Craies d'Azur, and The Center for Hearing and Speech. She offers street painting workshops to children through the Orange County Performing Arts Center
and the Los Angeles Music Center
.
Stimmell has worked in conjunction with online Photoshop
guru Mark Monciardini of Photoshop Top Secret to create Photoshop tutorials for photographers and artists. She now sells two tutorial DVD's titled Painting a Fantasy Portrait in Photoshop and The Street Painters Guide to the Pavement which she created in conjunction with colleagues in Holland.
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, is an International 3D street painter
Street painting
Street painting, also commonly known as pavement art, chalk art, and sidewalk art, is the performance art of rendering original and non-original artistic designs on pavement such as streets, sidewalks, and town squares with impermanent and semi-permanent materials such as chalk.-Origin:Street...
and Fine Artist Specializing in Large Scale Collaborative Projects and Renaissance style inspired Artistry.
A signature member of the Pastel Society of America, she began
street painting in 1998 and has painted at festivals throughout the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and internationally. Melanie Stimmell is an internationally recognized street painter, working with clients in Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
, Holland, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, The Netherlands Antilles, and throughout the US. Commissioned by corporations and advertising agencies for special events, performance art
Performance art
In art, performance art is a performance presented to an audience, traditionally interdisciplinary. Performance may be either scripted or unscripted, random or carefully orchestrated; spontaneous or otherwise carefully planned with or without audience participation. The performance can be live or...
and interactive media
Interactive media
Interactive media normally refers to products and services on digital computer-based systems which respond to the user’s actions by presenting content such as text, graphics, animation, video, audio, etc.-Terminology:...
which includes TV, film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
, and print
Printing
Printing is a process for reproducing text and image, typically with ink on paper using a printing press. It is often carried out as a large-scale industrial process, and is an essential part of publishing and transaction printing....
, Stimmell's street paintings convey the spirit of creativity, art, and culture.
"Melanie Stimmell is a modern day Leonardo da VinciLeonardo da VinciLeonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist and writer whose genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance...
. Her imagination and wild ability to paint and illustrate can bring extraordinary drama and appeal to any communications campaign." -Vicki Prentice
Career
Melanie Stimmell Van Latum is a graduate of Art Center College of DesignArt Center College of Design
Art Center College of Design is a private college located in Pasadena, California, and was cited by BusinessWeek as one of the 60 best design schools in the world. The college’s industrial design program is consistently ranked number one by both DesignIntelligence and U.S...
with a degree in Illustration
Illustration
An illustration is a displayed visualization form presented as a drawing, painting, photograph or other work of art that is created to elucidate or dictate sensual information by providing a visual representation graphically.- Early history :The earliest forms of illustration were prehistoric...
and was she was trained as an oil painter and digital media
Digital media
Digital media is a form of electronic media where data is stored in digital form. It can refer to the technical aspect of storage and transmission Digital media is a form of electronic media where data is stored in digital (as opposed to analog) form. It can refer to the technical aspect of...
artist. After graduating she worked as a lead technical director for the feature film South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut
South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut
South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut is a 1999 animated musical comedy film based on the animated television series South Park, created by Matt Stone and Trey Parker. The film was directed by Parker, who also stars along with the rest of the regular voice cast from the series, including Stone, Mary...
and then for the South Park
South Park
South Park is an American animated television series created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone for the Comedy Central television network. Intended for mature audiences, the show has become famous for its crude language, surreal, satirical, and dark humor that lampoons a wide range of topics...
TV series for 8 years. In 1999, while at South Park, she began street painting
Street painting
Street painting, also commonly known as pavement art, chalk art, and sidewalk art, is the performance art of rendering original and non-original artistic designs on pavement such as streets, sidewalks, and town squares with impermanent and semi-permanent materials such as chalk.-Origin:Street...
for festivals in the United States including the I Madonnari Festival in Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, California
Santa Barbara is the county seat of Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Situated on an east-west trending section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coast of the United States, the city lies between the steeply-rising Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean...
. In 2006 she was commissioned to create the festival's 20th Anniversary featured painting at the steps of the Mission Santa Barbara
Mission Santa Barbara
In 1840, Alta California and Baja California were removed from the Diocese of Sonora to form the Diocese of Both Californias. Bishop Francisco Garcia Diego y Moreno, OFM, established his cathedra at Mission Santa Barbara, making the chapel the pro-cathedral of the diocese until 1849...
. She was chosen as one of 3 American artists to paint in Istanbul
Istanbul
Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
, Turkey for their first street painting festival in 2004. Having painted for several cultural events in Holland, Melanie returned in the summer of 2007 to work with an international group of street painters from Italy, Germany, and Holland to paint a tribute to the churches and cathedrals of Utrecht
Utrecht (city)
Utrecht city and municipality is the capital and most populous city of the Dutch province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern corner of the Randstad conurbation, and is the fourth largest city of the Netherlands with a population of 312,634 on 1 Jan 2011.Utrecht's ancient city centre features...
. Stimmell's painting, 'The Entombment', was on display in the Augustinus church of Utrecht.
In 2009, under the artistic direction of Melanie Stimmell, Expressions in Chalk Street painting Festival Expressions in Chalk Street Painting Festival
Expressions in Chalk Street Painting Festival
Every year in London, Canada, The Imadon Street painting Performance Group puts on Expressions in Chalk Street Painting Festival.The Imadon Street Painting Performance Group is a non-profit organization, incorporated to bring the art of street painting to the citizens and artists of London, through...
in London, Canada London, Ontario
London, Ontario
London is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada, situated along the Quebec City – Windsor Corridor. The city has a population of 352,395, and the metropolitan area has a population of 457,720, according to the 2006 Canadian census; the metro population in 2009 was estimated at 489,274. The city...
, recreated the Central Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel at 18 x 92 feet. Stimmell also worked as a featured artist on the 2002 San Rafael Sistine Chapel Project. Since then, Melanie has secured her Maestro status in Europe with her second win in Holland and the highest honor a street painter is bestowed, Italy's Maestro Gold Medal in Grazie di Curtatone
Curtatone
Curtatone is a comune in the Province of Mantua in the Italian region Lombardy, located about 130 km southeast of Milan and about 7 km southwest of Mantua...
. Always evolving, Stimmell has brought the Renaissance tradition of street painting into the 21st century with new media integration. Now her most prominent events can be seen online via live stream
Streaming media
Streaming media is multimedia that is constantly received by and presented to an end-user while being delivered by a streaming provider.The term "presented" is used in this article in a general sense that includes audio or video playback. The name refers to the delivery method of the medium rather...
.
Other media
Stimmell is also a fine artist creating works in soft pastels and oils that she shows in Southern CaliforniaSouthern California
Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...
galleries under her married name, Melanie Van Latum. For the past 11 years Stimmell has been creating asphalt masterpieces and leading workshops for cultural and children's charity events around the world including Youth in arts
Youth in arts
Youth in Arts is a non-profit organization that provides visual and performing arts instruction to public and private school students and enriches the community with cultural events. Youth in Arts has been providing arts education to students in the San Francisco Bay Area since 1970, with a...
, Children's Creative Project, Larimer Arts Association, Bakersfield Museum of Art Educational
Programs, New Technology High School
New Technology High School
New Technology High School is a secondary school located in Napa, California.The school was founded in 1997 as a joint project of the Napa Valley Unified School District and the business community of the Napa Valley. One business community member, Ted Fujimoto, was instrumental in visioning the...
, Kayoo, Imadon Group, Visual Arts Scholastic Event, Les Craies d'Azur, and The Center for Hearing and Speech. She offers street painting workshops to children through the Orange County Performing Arts Center
Orange County Performing Arts Center
The Orange County Performing Arts Center is a performing arts complex located in Costa Mesa, California, United States.The Center offers the world’s leading dance companies, Broadway shows, award-winning classical, jazz and cabaret artists, family entertainment, special events and year-round...
and the Los Angeles Music Center
Los Angeles Music Center
The Music Center is one of the three largest performing arts centers in the nation. Located in downtown Los Angeles, the Music Center is home to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Ahmanson Theater, Mark Taper Forum and Walt Disney Concert Hall...
.
Stimmell has worked in conjunction with online Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop is a graphics editing program developed and published by Adobe Systems Incorporated.Adobe's 2003 "Creative Suite" rebranding led to Adobe Photoshop 8's renaming to Adobe Photoshop CS. Thus, Adobe Photoshop CS5 is the 12th major release of Adobe Photoshop...
guru Mark Monciardini of Photoshop Top Secret to create Photoshop tutorials for photographers and artists. She now sells two tutorial DVD's titled Painting a Fantasy Portrait in Photoshop and The Street Painters Guide to the Pavement which she created in conjunction with colleagues in Holland.