Did you know John Mellencamp was a painter? Bloomington did.
Editor's note: This story was updated at 10:33 a.m. on Sept. 18 to correct Michelle Mellencamp's title. Michelle Mellencamp is the store manager at Antiquated, not the co-owner. John Mellencamp is the gallery's sole owner.
Longtime Bloomington-area resident John Mellencamp is known best for his chart-topping, decades-long career as a folk rocker, penning hits including “Jack & Diane” and “Hurts So Good.” But around the Bloomington area, Mellencamp’s love for the American heartland and caricatures of the everyday working class take on a more visual medium — one you could even take home and hang in your living room.
“He’s been painting since I was little,” said Michelle Mellencamp, John “Cougar” Mellencamp’s daughter.
Michelle is store manager of Antiquated Fine Arts, an art gallery housed in a cozy, exposed-brick studio on South Walnut Street that showcases the paintings, historic furniture and assorted memorabilia of her father.
Mellencamp’s paintings, which number in the hundreds across his decades-long career, largely consist of neo-expressionist portraits that touch on the same themes of middle America, anti-establishment sentiment and narrative vibrancy that are central to his music catalog.
Like his fellow multi-medium creatives (Joni Mitchell, Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan, etc.), Mellencamp’s work as a painter and visual artist often gets much less attention than his music career within popular culture. But Mellencamp is prolific. Cathy Richey, personal assistant to John Mellencamp, says the now 72-year-old artist works on paintings nearly every day, often laboriously poring over and even returning to works over the course of several months.
“(John) grew up with his mom painting in the house. She was a mother of several kids, so she would take months to finish a painting,” Richey said. “That’s how long he thought it took growing up.”
It’s for that reason that you can find the Seymour-native’s work all around Bloomington and the surrounding community; not just at Antiquated. This month through December, the Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art is hosting “Crossroads,” an exhibition of Mellencamp’s paintings and multi-media pieces that “document the heart and soul of America with a rich sense of narrative.”
A few miles east of Bloomington, in Nashville, the Brown County Art Gallery holds an exhibit of original Mellencamp works and signed reproductions titled “Check It Out” — a reference to a 1987 Mellencamp song of the same name.
On Kirkwood Avenue, just three blocks north of Antiquated, Clash Gallery, owned by longtime townie Jennifer Mujezinovic, has another 17 Mellencamp pieces — including a 16-foot-long painting that Mujezinovic said has been in process since 1985.
“He just now finished it, and it’s called ‘Abandoned,’ because I know he says, ‘A painting’s never finished, it’s just abandoned,’” Mujezinovic said.
Mujezinovic, who struck up a friendship with Mellencamp after he visited her gallery on Kirkwood shortly after its opening, says Mellencamp’s embrace of his Hoosier roots in both visual art and music has helped her and other Indiana native artists to do the same.
“I would try to hide the fact that I was an Indiana painter for years, because many in the art world don’t take you seriously; they think you’re a hillbilly,” Mujezinovic said. “Whether it’s his art or his music, he comes from here, and he’s proud of it.”
Richey and Michelle Mellencamp said when John Mellencamp first bought the space that became Antiquated, he had visions of creating an “art walk” down Walnut Street that would highlight the vibrant arts scene of the local community.
“He imagined that there would be other art galleries; that people could go from place to place,” Richey said.
While one never manifested on that particular corridor, the downtown Gallery Walk, Clash Gallery, Antiquated and countless others show that the arts scene in Bloomington is alive and well, and send a message to those passing through that engaging, inspiring art can come from anywhere.
“I think people might be surprised to come in here and see what there is,” Richey said. “You don’t see some of these pieces every day. It’s very unique.”
Reach Brian Rosenzweig at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter/X at @brianwritesnews.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: John Mellencamp paintings featured in Bloomington: Antiquated, Eskenazi
