EYES OF MEL ODOM is a short documentary about New York City artist Mel Odom – a music video styled piece set to Mel’s voice exploring how through creativity he transformed loss and despair into hope and joy.
Moving to NYC in 1975, Mel’s homoerotic illustrations quickly proliferated from Blueboy to Playboy and on to cover artwork for Time magazine and numerous book jackets.
During the 80s and early 90s, as AIDS decimated his friends and fellow artists, Mel created beauty from pain, immortalizing loved ones in his drawings. Then in 1990, he designed fashion doll Gene Marshall, modeled after a glamorous starlet of Hollywood’s golden age. An instant hit among collectors at her 1995 Toy Fair premiere, secretly the doll was named after Mel’s boyfriend who lay dying of AIDS during her creation.
Now 50 years after moving to New York City and 30 years after AIDS became a chronic but treatable disease, Mel lives with his husband Charlie and continues to draw, paint and play with dolls. The ghosts of the past never stopped haunting him, but through his work there is solace and assurance that those lost will never completely be forgotten.
