Like Victor Frankenstein before her, ceramicist Molly Melican breathes life and personality into her gaggle of googly-eyed hobgoblin friends.
Based in Australia, Melican is an emerging artist who creates bizarre ceramic creatures under the name Ginklet. “I would describe my art as a cohort of ugly, colorful heads that look just GREAT on a mantelpiece,” Melican tells Fourline Design, a homewares company that focuses on bespoke pieces with a handcrafted, artistic edge. “In saying that, I would also describe my art as sometimes very cute,” she continues. “Cuteness to ugliness ratio varies day to day.”
Melican starts her creative process by sculpting the facial features for her ceramic vessels, which are sometimes functional; other times they are simply decorative. “I don’t really think [my creatures] up at the start,” she explains. “I begin with an idea about how I might like the nose to look, and once that is complete, I create eyes that would compliment the nose […] and so on. I sometimes feel like the sculptures take on features and characteristics of their own volition completely, and I am just an observer watching it unfold.”
With bulging eyes and protruding lips, the Ginklet sculptures are a stylistic mashup of claymation and offbeat Nickelodeon puppet show Mr. Meaty. Melican creates her sculptures with a crude, almost innocent hand, a tactic that reflects the playful nature of the work. “Ever since I was about four, I loved to draw strange-looking creatures and have always been attracted to the unusual and weird,” she says, drawing a direct line between childhood and open-minded exploration. “My ceramics hopefully elicit a sense of child-like curiosity,” she continues, “with every character I create having its own quirky characteristics and personality brought to life.”
Molly Melican: Website | Instagram | Purchase Work
All photos published with permission of the artist.
Want to be featured in Lightbox? Email editor@notrealart.com with a short introduction and a link to your online portfolio or three images of your work.