Where are you from? (2024)

Jenna Melnyk

Where are you from? (2024)
Stoneware, multiple glazes.
6.5"x12"x8.5"
8.5"x7"x4.5"
(2 piece set)

Inspired by:

Daniel Melnyk (Grandpop, 1918-1995)

Back yard in Carpinteria (1963)
Pencil, watercolor, paper.
9.5"x8.5"

It wasn’t until I left for California in 2012 that I learned my father spent part of his childhood just sixteen miles from where I was heading. My Grandpop Danny’s job had them constantly moving – a strange requirement for a man who illustrated new highway overpasses and traffic lights for the US Highway Department. Only after his death did we learn he secretly worked for the Department of Defense, using that same ink to draw fighter jets and missiles. 

This watercolor of their backyard in Carpinteria traveled with me from New York to almost exactly where it was painted fifty years later. While California has had an irevocable and profound effect on how I define myself, it’s a complicated thing to live so far away. This painting reflects my surroundings, but it is also a reminder of the holidays, births, and quiet moments of routine that I am missing.

My sculpture set, “Where are you from?”, is my response to a question that after 12 years, I no longer know the answer to. It is a continuation of the colors and shapes from my Grandpop’s watercolor and an echo of his thoughts. Was he thinking of his home back East as he painted? Did he experience the same changes I have felt living here? The larger sculpture represents the home I have created in California – the one that is most present in my day-to-day. The smaller is the home in New York that I carry within me – the one I will always miss.