Some people do therapy to work through their nightmares. Melinda Santillán is an artist that chose to befriend them, come out and play.
 
From the geminial figures that clod our streams -who like Janus are the guardians of the Gate and the Secret, the dream and the nightmare, between the living and the dead, the end and the begining- Melinda Santillán is one of the attractive ones. She is a creative director, designer and artist that blends her multiple facets into fashion collections (Adieu), events (Famous/Anonymous), photo productions or wet watercolor pictures. We can find this creatress of visions –transcribed on ink or immortalized on stamps- dividing her work between Mexico City and Montreal.

It’s easy to picture her looking for monsters under her bed before heading to sleep, doing sketches of her obsessions on a notepad or, why not?, hugging the ghosts from her closet (the literal and the metaphorical ones). But let’s not speculate too much and ask the source herself.

If you had to do it in your own words, what kind of person would  You describe yourself to be?
 
A wannabe senior citizen.
 
Can you tell us a little bit about your project Famous Anonymous? Is it a self-help group?
 
Famous/anonymous is a group of collaborative projects between friends that fall under the same theme. It started out as a reaction when digital photography became really big in nightclubs, with everyone taking photos and posting them online. A few friends and I thought it would be amazing if you could censor yourself out of photographs you didn't want to be in so we made portable censor bars that we could have on hand and avoid embarrassing pics online the next day. I guess it is a bit of a self-help but the whole thing was more of a joke because we would pass them around and everyone wanted to pose with them. I guess the idea was to take control of the photos because they were going to end up online whether we like it or not. With the F/A parties my friend Karen and I wanted to create a perfect party with our dream guest list.  We blew up photographs of our favorite friends from around the world, took pictures of people we liked on the street and held casting sessions. And of course we added celebrities we loved, anonymously of course. The fun part was to place them in the space, deciding where we would put everyone and making different groups. We had parties in Montreal, Mexico and Tokyo and we took photographs to make new cutouts.


 
Should we hug a ghost too? What´s behind that?
 
The shoot with the ghost was a surprise. I was working with my friend, Anna Sulikowska (who was the photographer) on a photoshoot and at the end of the day, when the hair and makeup people left, I just wanted to do a fun spontaneous shoot in her bedroom which I love. It is all pale pink, with an old school mirror and nice geometric sculptures. The model had a white mask and Anna's roomate came home in the middle of the shoot so I got him to pose under the sheet and be her friend for the photos. I love ghosts and I think a plain sheet can be the most elegant outfit. I've been shooting my friends in sheets like that ever since.

What music's in your head when you draw?
 
When I'm sketching I love to listen to random music, the radio or a mixed tape from a friend I´ve recently bought a Universal Radio mix Cd on the subway in Mexico and it has like 400 hits, mostly soft rock from the 80's and heavy metal ballads. But if I'm working on something for a long time, I love to listen to telenovelas, the storyline goes on forever, and it makes time go by really fast.


 
What are your favorites working materials?
 
I love black ink and collecting objects to work with
 
What is your first memory? Is it from Mexico or Canada?
 
I only lived in mexico until I was 3, but i remember having a birthday party with a pinata that was around 6 feet tall, it was of the frog character from the tv show "Burbujas". My parents hid it but I found it by accident and it terrified me. When I was in kindergarten in Montreal, my whole class wanted to be Boy George for halloween, so the teachers made us little cardboard hats with colored braids and made up our faces like him. It was the best.
 
It seems like your collections are really taking off. Are you planing to start your own clothes' design or are you going to stay on stamps?

Ive been sketching and getting different samples made to try it out, I might end producing it as a collection someday.