Collecting Spotlight: Outsider Artist Tony Melendez's "Saint Anthony"

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By Gregory Disney-Britton

"Saint Anthony" (2010) by Brooklyn-born artist Arsenio Tony Melendez; Acrylic, pencil, and collage on white poster board 22 x 28 in. Gifted on January 10, 2015 to Alpha & Omega Project for Contemporary Religious Arts, Inc. by David Woods.

Earlier this month, one of outsider artist Arsenio Tony Melendez's collectors David Wood, and a fellow parishioner at Life Journey Church gifted Melendez's 2010 painting "Saint Anthony" to Alpha Omega Arts. This self-taught artist Tony Melendez (1938-2015) spent decades exploring non-spiritual themes before coming to focus on religious themes when he moved to Indianapolis with his life-partner of 25-years Gary Dyer, a fellow artist. We sat together at church with Melendez, until his unexpected passing last January 2015. We miss him, but our lives continue to be made rich by his creations.