This year’s January Interim Program at the Altos de Chavón School of Art and Design had one course that was a true standout: the drawing class of Melanie Reim. A smashing, sold-out success, it had more than 27 students and its own model—Douglas, a mime from Portland, Maine—to pose for the students. The tornado of energy, skill, experience, and unbridled love of Chavón and the Dominican Republic that Melanie brought to her course still reverberates months later.
Melanie has been a part of Chavón’s educational world for the last 17 years. On one occasion she had won a Fulbright Grant to teach illustration and about illustration in Altos de Chavón and around the country. She has given her students the skills of drawing in an unprecedented manner. Her brilliant dedication, patience, and insight into the art of illustration are obvious the instant you enter her classroom. Her enthusiasm explodes, and it’s contagious. As a student, you totally understand that it’s about the joy of learning.
Whether teaching or sketching, Melanie loves to get dirty, and an attitude of illustration as contact sport prevails. In each classroom session, in seconds she’s a virtual coal miner, covered with charcoal dust as she sits on the floor along with her students, doing huge contour line drawings, singing while making blind drawings, or having the class draw with their feet instead of their hands. And she’ll travel to special places to get dirty, photographing and later sketching, or sketching right on site.
This January Melanie’s classroom was brimming with students from years ago. Graduates of the Melanie experience, they flock back to Chavón for more Melanie. The School of Art and Design graduates who attended her class were among the most successful talents in the Dominican Republic’s pantheon of drawing giants. Biennial winners Hulda Guzmán and Gustavo Peña, along with Alma Peguero, Dalton Gata, Paulo Stefano, Moo Chungh, Luis Hildalgo, and Orlin Dominguez, comprised the growing fan club of Melanie followers who returned to Chavón for the course.
Julia and Hulda Guzmán drawing, Altos de Chavón
Chavón’s current fulltime illustration teacher, Jonathan Schmidt, himself a Chavón graduate, once said of Melanie that she was the best teacher he’d ever had and the motivation for him to pursue art. Coincidently, both Melanie and I studied with the same illustration giant, David Passalaqua. Every one of his classes was a theatrical, visceral, unforgettable experience. There was never any drifting along: it was a rollercoaster ride from the first moment of class time, with models dressed in outrageous costumes and the energy of a tsunami. Clearly a disciple of Passalaqua, Melanie celebrates that unique way of teaching in her own pedagogical style. At the exhausting finale of a Melanie course there is a feeling of euphoria and pride in accomplishment engendered by the unmatchable strength of her effort.
Melanie’s credentials are too many to list here, but they include her current position as chair of the graduate-level illustration program at New York City’s prestigious Fashion Institute of Technology, where she has been teaching illustration for 25 years. She is an active member of the Illustrator’s Club, and her illustrations have been widely published. The Smithsonian Institute, in Washington, D.C., has her work in its collection, and the United States Air Force has used her on-site sketching ability to document its training missions. She is currently working on a book of sketches with the theme of beaches; the sketches showcase many places, but there’s little doubt that Bayahibe is her favorite.
At the start of her class this year Melanie had a fever and suffocating bronchial cold, but she plowed ahead, giving in to taking care of herself only after class was over. Despite feeling under the weather, she often ran extra hours in the evening for students who wanted more, as she has routinely done in previous years. Then, to top it off, she once again donated her entire salary for the course to the Altos de Chavón Foundation. The School of Design is extremely grateful to Melanie Reim.
Article contributed by Stephen Kaplan – Thank you Stephen!
Stephen Kaplan is the Rector of the Altos de Chavón School of Art and Design
A component of The Altos de Chavón Cultural Center Foundation, a U.S. 501(c)(3) public charity, the Altos de Chavón School of Art and Design has been graduating students from its two-year associate-degree program, affiliated with New York City’s prestigious Parsons “The New School For Design” since 1983.
Three majors are offered: Graphic Design, Fashion Design, and Fine Arts/Illustration. In addition, The School has developed a state-of-the-art Certificate Program in Digital Design.
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