Above and below, people attend the opening reception at the Yukon Arts Centre on June 5. Mike Thomas photos.
It’s a practice she began in 2003, with the long-term goal of capturing every Yukoner. Today, she says she has roughly 1,400 portraits, completed largely at events including the Yukon Riverside Arts Festival in Dawson City and at her former Atlin studio.
When she started, Melvin says she wasn’t prepared for the degree of intimacy the process would entail. It wasn’t like previous work she’d done, quietly sketching portraits on her own in her studio. She would arrive in a public place, set up her equipment, and immediately find herself talking to passers-by. She’d talk to the people who were sitting for portraits as well, sometimes a little too much (“I’d say ‘gee that eye really is bigger than the other one’ and they’d say ‘what?’”).
And while, with hundreds of portraits under her belt at this point, it’s hard to remember every single person, she says people will come back to her on occasion. A month ago, she and a server in a restaurant couldn’t place each other, but knew there was something familiar between them. Back at home, Melvin was sure she found a portrait of the woman.