Saul Melman:
Between Doctoring & Art Making

The practice of medicine and the practice of art demand courage within the realm of uncertainty. When the path forward is unclear, determination, balanced with patient, attentive listening, empower the practitioner with the ability to move forward.  All processes unfold in time. Understanding when to implement critical decisions takes skill, knowledge and experience. Bridging these two seemingly different worlds with insight and dedication is artist and doctor Saul Melman.

In 2013, Melman was a Dieu Donné Workspace resident. He has continued his experiments with paper pulp in our professional studio and in our newly established community studio. Recently, he created a new, ambitious project in our professional studio working with Tatiana Ginsberg (Co-Director of Artistic Projects and Master Collaborator) and Sarika Sugla (Studio Manager). The commissioned work is exhibited in a radiology waiting room suite at NYU Langone, in Brooklyn. Inspired by the installation site and scanning electron microscope photographs of bone, Melman created large, colorful wall pieces that re-imagine the architectural structure of bone in handmade paper.

Melman discusses the relationship between being an artist and being an emergency room doctor in Threshold Spaces: Saul Melman Interviewed by A.M. Homes, featured in Bomb Magazine:

In both I’m paying careful attention to a material in transition. There’s an unfolding narrative, and my role is to listen and observe in order to understand which parts of the story are most important.

In the ER I’m experiencing a critical moment with people, when matter is spinning out of control. In the arena of the studio, I’m interested in creating a narrative that moves the curtain back to expose that vitality of matter, and to freeze those threshold moments in time.

In the Dieu Donné studios early this year, he did just that. Before selecting the ideal sequence of techniques and materials to realize his vision, Melman experimented heavily with his process-driven practice. His final method incorporated an abundance of water, pigmented linen pulp paint washes, stencils, and bold blow-outs in striking colors, layered on a tinted abaca base sheet. This complex papermaking process with multiple stencils—a completely new way of working for the artist—allowed him to add and carve away areas of pulp, pushing the structure of papermaking fibers to build and excavate cavities, much as living bone grows and decays.

After many years of working solely with black pigment, Melman embraced vibrant colors to create two complementary images that form a singular work. Conceptualized to speak to the experience of patients awaiting imagery of their inner worlds, he shifted the focus from diagnosis and pathology towards an invitation to contemplative abstraction. Melman says: “The project is a meditation on the invisible universal microcosm inside all of us, which is confluent with the greater macrocosm that surrounds us.”

Check out more of Melman’s paper work from his 2013 Workspace Residency here.

Thanks to the generosity of Hand Papermaking, Inc., we are happy to share this article (PDF) by Art historian Donna Gustafon Ph.D, who discusses Melman’s papermaking practice using ice, carbon, and water. To purchase an issue of the article, please click here.

For additional information, please visit Melman’s website: http://www.saulmelman.com/

Artwork is available for purchase, both as a pair and as individual pieces. For sale inquiries, please email dieudonne@dieudonne.org.

Tatiana Ginsberg, Master Collaborator and Co-director of Artistic Projects, working on stenciling linen pulp paint through a mylar stencil for Melman, January 2020.