Melanie Janisse-Barlow is a Canadian artist and writer based in Windsor, Ontario. Her work is held in public and private collections internationally and she is represented by Youn Contemporary in Montreal. Known for her ongoing Poet Series—portraits of Canadian poets—Janisse-Barlow has exhibited at Art Toronto, Art Palm Beach, and Art Busan. Her large-scale works are permanently installed in Detroit’s Fisher Building and Chroma. Also a published poet, she is the author of Orioles in the Oranges and Thicket, and is currently completing her first novel with support from the Canada Council for the Arts. @melaniejanissebarlow

How has your childhood in Windsor contributed to your artistic identity? I was born in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. A border town, one mile away from Detroit. I would have to say that this region (Windsor/Detroit) shaped everything about my art and my thinking. Windsor is a fierce and salty town that seems to practically manufacture successful artists in all genres. It is a mid-western town. Factories, grit, unions, fighters. I just think that people from here know how to fight for what they want and what they believe in. I have that fierceness in me for sure. Being that Windsorites are fairly close to Toronto (about three and a half hours up the highway), and literally minutes from Detroit, there is this accessibility to city culture that is unrivalled. I was able to be a part of some seminal times in Detroit in the late eighties and early nineties that completely shaped me as an artist. I was at a lot of the first White Stripes performances, including seeing them play at the infamous Fourth Street Fair beside an oil can fire. I was at the first Detroit Cobras show in Steve Shaw's place, which boasted an old Hell's Angel's crib on the main floor—where the show took place. I was at Ritchie Hawtin's Packard Plant raves. These were the times that unfolded in front of me, and I immersed myself in the culture of the time. I was also able to head up to Toronto and take in shows at the Horseshoe and hang out in Kensington Market, where years later I had a vintage shop. Not to mention, so many bands toured from Detroit to Toronto, and places like Stanley's Tavern here in Windsor were able to net some pretty amazing bands who were simply passing through. Music all around. New wave fashion was also pretty big in Windsor in the mid to late eighties, and I modelled for some salons and fashion labels that actively had shows in Windsor and Detroit. I was part of the Venus parties here—early club kid queer community stuff. Honestly, somehow Windsor was a bit of a hot bed when I was coming up. There was so much to do.

What sparked your initial interest in creating art, and how did that early curiosity evolve into a deeper commitment to artistic practice?
I have a writing and a visual arts practice. I knew I wanted to write from a very, very young age. I published my first 'book' Jim, Jan and Kojan Escape From Spies when I was like, seven. My aunt was a teacher and so she laminated and spiral bound by illustrated book for me. I still have it. So sweet. I started writing poetry in grade school. Not surprising to have wound up with two trade books of poetry. As for visual art, it was when I was in Montreal at Concordia University that I started to take photos. I had an old Contax and an old Yaschica Mat twin lens portrait camera that I was obsessed with. I transferred from an english degree to visual arts, where I pursued photography. It wasn't until later, when I did a second visual arts degree at Emily Carr in Vancouver, Canada that I made the move from photography to painting. I got tired of the paper substrate, and started to experiment with alternative photographic processes, and eventually sort of moved into painting, with the encouragement of some other painters that lived in the same warehouse building that I lived in on Hastings Street in Vancouver. I think that I have had a few times in my life where I have had to question and reconfirm that I am an artist. I keep picking art, and so I feel like it has become a firm realization over time. Art is important to me because it is a site of personal expression and freedom. I can unapologetically explore myself and my reality here, no permission needed. It is mine—an honest and fairly unencumbered place to explore.

What does your typical day in the studio look like? Walk us through your studio and your most used materials and tools. I always start with a daily bit of writing on or from the studio. I have them on a Substack: https://melaniejanissebarlow.substack.com/ I find this early morning writing crucial to situating myself in the studio. I find my compass by mindfully speaking of the direction and zeitgiest of my own studio. It helps me to see the way forward. Next, I usually go to a yoga class, or do some sort of movement/self care in the later morning. I start in my studio right after. I usually have work prepared/sketched out. I plan days of sketching. I like doing this in groups of work. I often will created an ingathering of work that has a similar palette and that way, I can keep things going with mixing colour and such. I like working this way. I have been working primarily in acrylics and tend to prefer Golden. I am geeking out over Beam Paints right now—a Manitoulin Island based First Nations paint company. All natural. I have been using them to finish work and am really enjoying them. I have a mill right here in Windsor that builds me custom bars, panels and even floating framing for my work. I have these nice, sustainable systems in place. I have been thinking of switching to oils again. They have been on my mind. I love painting alla prima, especially en plein air. I have a nice set up for cycling and painting that I haven't had the time to use in a while. I am sort of seeing a summer studio routine manifesting. I also try to schedule in days for admin, web work, organizing, marketing, etc. They are very important things and need a contained space for me. That way, a studio day is a studio day and and admin day is and admin day. I hate it when those things start to conflate.

What projects are you at work on at the moment? And what themes or ideas are currently driving your work? I have a pretty busy schedule of portraiture this summer. I am working on a Superior Court judge this july. Her portrait will hang in chambers, so that is a big part of my studio this summer. I have a few private commissions to take care of as well—one a fairly large one. I am working on some work for my Channel Surfing series as well. Here is a small excerpt from the writing on the project:

The formative years persist in memory like a channel. You can flip to it, an archive that exists in the ether, a ghost station playing only the hits (and some of the misses), always teetering on the cusp of razor-sharp and faded gossamer, where you can surf amidst the music, the apartments, the kitchen parties, the clubs, the art, the people... For Melanie Janisse-Barlow all of this overlaid footage existed — happened — in what she calls “the gritty, beautiful, problematic place of Windsor and Detroit” in the 1980s and 1990s where she felt “free, and also awkward, but together.”

The border cities of Windsor, Ont., and Detroit, Mich., of the late-twentieth century were more than a whole mood, “they were at once wonderful and terrifying,” Janisse-Barlow recalls from her Windsor-based studio, where the paintings that comprise Channel Surfing have formed out of the ether of clove cigarettes, Flock of Seagull haircuts, pawnshop guitars, candelabras, and moodiness. “It was a place without safety nets, but there were older girls who would dress you up in their clothes and take you to the Leland City Club, or Changez, or The Shelter when you were underage and teach you the ropes of such an unstrung place.” Here is the url for more writing on this project: https://www.melaniejanissebarlowstudio.com/channel-surfing

What message or emotions are you conveying through your paintings? I hope that I am capturing some of the essence of our time. I hope that people can feel the emotive quality of my work. The subversiveness and moodiness of my paintings along with their beauty. I want them to have good resonance and dissonance in turn. I want them to feel the grit and grace of my work. To see a part of themselves in what I make. A relatability that is the human experience. I am truly trying to be a good documentarian of my life on this planet. To capture the feeling tone of my time and locales. To find what is universal in the particular.

Which artists, alive or dead, would you like to meet? Mary Ellen Mark, O'Keefe, Kahlo, Arbus, Cindy Sherman, Francesca Woodman, Frankenthaler, Cassatt, Joni Mitchell, Judy Chicago, Hilma af Klint, Betye Saar, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Emily Carr, Camille Henrot, Miriam Cahn, Leiko Ikemura, Dumas. Oh, I could literally go on forever.

Are there creative fields outside of visual art that influence your work? I totally do. Music had been very influential, as well as dance, performance and poetry. Well, all forms of writing, really. I flow into these practices myself, from time to time. I love letting more immediate art forms filter into my slower work with painting and writing. Seeing a band or a dancer work with their craft has a real affect on my painting. I am thinking of the stills that I made of Henry Hill's experimental film SSS. Sometimes there is a direct influence like this, where I am immediately influenced by film or movement. I included a painting from that series here.

A great thing about living in my town is… It is affordable. It is a return to my roots/hometown. My family. It is close to great cities. It is a farm belt. It is near an international airport. There is a good quality of life here. That is very important to me. To be near family and to have a good quality of life. I am able to work from anywhere, and so this seems to be as good of a place as any. I only require a good cafe to write in and access to fresh food. My work has an international audience, and so I can really focus on enjoying what Windsor has to offer as a city while not relying too heavily on audience here. I can hide a bit. It can be monastic and therefore a good place to focus on the studio. There are nice nature walks and nice waterways to explore.

Can you describe a project that challenged you creatively or emotionally—and how you worked through it? Gosh, there have been many. Here is a great story about a painting I totally ruined a handful of days before it was expected at an art fair: https://melaniejanissebarlow.substack.com/p/how-we-roll

Tell us about important teachers/mentors/collaborators in your life. My husband Andrew Barlow. My friend Genevieve Marentette. They are my musical family. They are lifers. Marian Penner-Bancroft taught me photography at Concordia University in Montreal and was a very nurturing person for me as developed as an artist. Catherine Black, is a fellow traveller and a brilliant writer. We published our first books almost in tandem and have to this day have bi-weekly conversations about life and art that sustain me on the ground. Another lifer. Vladimir Spicanovic was my advisor at graduate school at OCADU in Toronto, and I surely wouldn't have made it to the end of that program without his amazing mentorship. Duke Redbird helped me a lot in grad school as well. Kevin McKenzie was the artist who talked me into painting. He lived upstairs from me in Vancouver and really helped me with that transition. Lots of encouragement. My poetry editor Jim Johnstone. I am sure there are many more.

Sustainability in the art world is an important issue. Can you share a memory or reflection about the beauty and wonder of the natural world? Does being in nature inspire your art or your process? Totally. Here is an essay that I just wrote about nature in relation to my practice: https://melaniejanissebarlow.substack.com/p/the-land
I lived out in the bush in the Canadian west coast for a spell. I lived on Pelee Island in the middle of Lake Erie. Here is another piece on my first arrival in the bush, completely unprepared, mixed in with a trip to see the sunrise at Point Pelee: https://melaniejanissebarlow.substack.com/p/nature-as-balm

AI is changing everything - the way we see the world, creativity, art, our ideas of beauty and the way we communicate with each other and our imaginations. What does authenticity mean to you in an age of AI-generated art? I mean, AI is cool for some things. I think it is a very helpful research tool. I don't consume AI art, nor do the people who collect art. I don't really see it overtaking in my realm. I am a person 'of the hand' and that is doubtful to change as a consumer or as an artist.

Exploring ideas, art and the creative process connects me to… Everyone and everything. Myself. Essence. Ballast. Joy. It is the underground.

Interviewed by Mia Funk - Artist, Interviewer, and Founder of The Creative Process and One Planet Podcast. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.