COLLABORATING COLLECTORS

A couple in California curates a thoughtful yet intuitively guided collection of contemporary art.

- JOHN O'HERN

Melanie and Mike’s collection is highly personal. Melanie is an artist and has been painting for 20 years. “She has the knowledge,” Mike says. With a smile, he adds, “I’m the banker.” He undersells his role in assembling the collection, however. They collaborate on commissioning pieces for special occasions, acquiring works by teachers and their students and, sometimes, they wander on their own through art shows only to meet up and discover they both like the same piece. That happens when you’ve been happily married for 50 years.

“When I started painting,” Melanie recounts, “the idea developed that it would not only be fun to paint but also to collect. The first piece we bought was in Carmel. We had spent time there and it was a reminder of our visit. It triggered the desire to have more art. When we moved into this house there was a whole lot of wall space.”

“When we started off, we collected impressionists and later moved into contemporary art as we grew in knowledge and gathered more information,” Mike explains.

“We met Vanessa Rothe at Vanessa Rothe Fine Art in Laguna Beach,” Melanie says. “She’s been instrumental in helping us build our collection. She’s well connected to artists and to the art world. That has been extremely valuable to people like us who were starting at zero. She has since become a friend.” Rothe’s description of her gallery is an apt description of the couple’s collection—“contemporary realism and impressionism, with a hint of modern.”