Sep 7
Works in progress: Mel Odom film, Mick Hicks photo book, DIFFA gets ‘Buttons On’
Jim Provenzano READ TIME: 1 MIN.
Sometimes we get information about projects that aren’t complete yet deserving of a little bit of attention, including a short film and a book project from two notable artists. Plus, a fun fundraiser at a local museum revives an AIDS nonprofit.
‘Eyes of Mel Odom’
Magazine readers of a certain age will instantly recognize the artwork of Mel Odom, whose wide-eyed artistic influence has graced the covers of novels by Edmund White, and in Blueboy, Playboy, After Dark, Christopher Street and many other publications. He also developed a line of Gene Marshall dolls, named after his boyfriend who died of AIDS.
Now a crew of filmmakers, including co-directors Jörg Fockele and Michael Economy, are developing “Eyes of Mel Odom,” a short documentary about Odom as he narrates his artistic process while going through some artwork.
The film shows how Odom used his art to deal with the profound losses of friends and lovers he experienced to AIDS in the 1980s and 1990s. He even immortalized a few of his lovers who died from AIDS-related complications in some of his famous drawings. Mel says himself, “I felt that the only control I had over anything in my life [in that period of time] was the control over my work.”
Odom had an expansive book of his illustrations published in 2024. Here’s his BAR interview with Cornelius Washington.
It’s a fascinating project and you can learn how to donate here.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/shortdoco/eyes-of-mel-odom
Mick Hick’s ‘Cast Party’
Like Mel Odom's art, Mick Hicks started his photography career in the 1970s focusing on the LGBTQ community. Some of his prominent work includes documentation of the early Gay Games events, as well as being a photographer for the Bay Area Reporter, and several adult video companies like Falcon, Hot House Colt Studios, which have also been published in several book collections.
For his new project, “Mick Hicks’ The Cast Party: Photographs of the Gay Community in San Francisco, 1978-1984,” Hicks has collected a compendium of his best early work with a sense of nostalgia and reverie for lost eras. The large-scale coffee table book will surely become a collectors’ item. Celebrities, social groups, protests and circuit parties are captured and grouped in succinct style.
And you can be a part of it. Hicks, who now lives in Los Angeles, is seeking people who participated in San Francisco queer culture of the ’70s and 1980s to contribute short essays of a few hundred words each. If you’re interested in contributing for consideration, contact Mick at [email protected] and
https://www.instagram.com/fotomick/
https://www.facebook.com/mickhicksfoto/
Buttons On with DIFFA
The Museum of Craft and Design continues to elevate unusual arts and crafts into the high art genre, including Beau McCall’s joyful button-based creations of fabric currently on display.
DIFFA San Francisco, the nonprofit which has been dormant for a few years, is back in action and will host a reception at the museum on September 13, 6pm to 8pm, at the museum, 2569 Third Street. Tickets start at $100. Proceeds benefit UCSF’s Ward 86 HIV/AIDS clinic programs at San Francisco General Hospital.
Since 1984, DIFFA has awarded more than $58 million nationwide, offering flexible, unrestricted funding for care and education. Today, our mission extends to support individuals facing food insecurity, housing instability, and mental health challenges.
https://e.givesmart.com/events/JUg/
https://diffasanfrancisco.org/
