Kreh Mellick ’01 

Professional Artist

Education: Maine College of Art, Illustration and Drawing (BFA); CORE Fellowship, Penland School of Craft

What I’m Doing Now: I’m a professional artist. I create decorative works on paper, using gouache, that contain animals and organic things. My approach is narrative-based — I think a lot about storybooks and illustration, about transporting viewers to another world. From a young age, art was a space in which I felt peace and calm, where I could get lost in the process of visual storytelling.

A problem-solving aspect of art that I also enjoy is branding and logo work for companies. Mural work is another area of my art. I recently completed a hand-painted mural for the New York City store of Jessica McCormack, a London-based diamond company. Murals are such a different scale and color palette — I hope to paint more of them. I’ve been lucky in that I haven’t had to do a lot of marketing. Personal connections in which the client and I share an appreciation for style has driven much of my collaborative work.

How KPS Influenced Me: I loved my Kent Place English classes, my friends, the closeness of our class and the community, but much of school was hard for me academically. I had two amazing art teachers — Judy Lapides for studio art and Anna Kasten for AP Art History — who pushed me to explore art school and gave me permission to pursue the craft. They encouraged me to take a pre-college art course at the Rhode Island School of Design after my junior year to get a sense of what art school would feel like. At the time, it was scary and intimidating, but ultimately it was really helpful for me. I was a shy, timid kid, so to have teachers believe in me like that was huge. Even my advisor throughout high school, a chemistry teacher — chemistry was one of my toughest classes — went to bat for me. I felt a lot of support. It was so validating to feel seen in that way.

My Proudest Accomplishment: I’m proud I chose a career path that felt right to me, and that I discovered and developed a community within it. My time at Penland School of Craft after college really built up that community for me. It gave me a full life. My husband — who is also an artist, a metalworker — and most of my dearest friends and mentors came out of that place. We stayed in Asheville after our Penland fellowship, so these are the people we spend our free time and holidays with, who have been there for us and for our kids.

Advice for My KPS Sisters: Listen to your gut and seek out the support of a teacher you feel drawn to or who is trying to help you. Also, relationships are valuable. Stay in touch with your classmates and exchange your news. I love reading updates about Kent Place alumnae — I’m so proud of what they’ve accomplished.

Profile as of 10/2025.