Melinda Bordelon

Melinda Jane Bordelon (March 6, 1949 – November 18, 1995) was an American painter and illustrator whose professional work adorns magazine covers, articles, and advertisements—as well as album covers, book covers, and video game packaging—produced from the early 1970s through the 1990s. Her principal art media were acrylic paint and ink.

Melinda Bordelon
Born
Melinda Jane Bordelon

6 March 1949
Died18 November 1995
NationalityAmerican
EducationTexas Christian University
Known forIllustration, painting

Early life and education

Melinda Jane Bordelon was the daughter of Dr. Howard M. Bordelon (a urologist) and Mary Jane Peters Bordelon, of Amarillo, Texas.[1] Interested in art from an early age, she was a third-prize winner in a newspaper coloring contest when she was 12 years old.[2] She attended Tascosa High School[3] before enrolling at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, where she studied illustration under Don Ivan Punchatz.[4]

Career

Shortly after Bordelon relocated from Texas to Cornwall, New York in the early 1970s, the weekly magazine New York commissioned her to contribute a painting to a collection illustrating dramatic scenes from the Watergate scandal. She was one of the few artists selected who had never worked with the magazine before.[5] Within a year, through her work for various magazines, Bordelon became a highly sought-after illustrator in American media.

Among her magazine cover illustrations were the June 1974 issue of National Lampoon,[6] the October 1976 issue of Sesame Street Magazine, and the October 1982 issue of Harper's Magazine. Her extensive magazine credits also included article illustrations for Esquire,[7][8] National Lampoon,[9][10][11] Oui,[12] and Playboy.[13]

The Society of Illustrators recognized Bordelon for her illustration work on three occasions between 1974 and 1977. The Society first awarded her for the cover of the 1974 Brownsville Station album School Punks, which she illustrated by commission of Atlantic Records. In the spring of 1975, the Society exhibited this album art, among others, at Illustrators XVII, the 17th such exhibition at their contemporary art gallery in New York.[14] In addition, they subsequently exhibited her work at Illustrators XVIII (1976) and Illustrators XIX (1977).

In the mid-1990s, Bordelon also provided illustrations and creative input for some Origin Systems video games.[15][16]

In her later years, Melinda Bordelon lived in Austin, Texas and took up photography.[17]

References
  1. "Artist Featured in Publications" Amarillo Globe-Times (April 22, 1975): 25. via Newspapers.com
  2. "Coloring Contest Winners Selected" Amarillo Globe-Times (October 7, 1961): 22. via Newspapers.com
  3. Melinda Bordelon, "Ski Fever Contagious" Amarillo Globe-Times (February 2, 1966): 17. via Newspapers.com
  4. Staff writer (21 April 1975). "Lookout". People. Lookout. Los Angeles: Time Inc. 3 (15): 48. ISSN 0093-7673. Retrieved 23 April 2011.
  5. Staff writer (17 June 1974). "Between the Lines". New York. New York: New York Media Holdings: 6. ISSN 0028-7369. Retrieved 24 April 2011.
  6. "Food". National Lampoon. 1 (51: Food). June 1974.
  7. Harrison, William (June 1974). "Down the Blue Hole". Esquire. Hearst Corporation. LXXXI (6). ISSN 0014-0791.
  8. Richardson, Jack (November 1974). "George C. Scott Among the Hurricanes". Esquire. Hearst Corporation. LXXXII (5). ISSN 0014-0791.
  9. Sussman, Gerald (November 1973). "Paper Fan". National Lampoon. 1 (44: Sports).
  10. Miller, Chris (July 1974). "A Thanksgiving Memory". National Lampoon. 1 (52: Dessert).
  11. Miller, Chris (October 1974). "The Night of the Seven Fires". National Lampoon. 1 (55: Pubescence).
  12. Gold, Herbert (February 1976). "The Therapist Will See You Now, Big Boy". Oui. Playboy Enterprises. 5 (1).
  13. Crews, Harry (October 1975). "Charles Bronson Ain't No Pussycat". Playboy. Playboy Enterprises. 22 (10). ISSN 0032-1478.
  14. Staff writer (26 December 1974). "41 Album Covers and the Illustrators Win Plaudits". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media: 53. ISSN 0006-2510. Retrieved 24 April 2011.
  15. Origin Systems (February 1994). Privateer: Righteous Fire (DOS). Origin Systems.
  16. Origin Systems (1994). Ultima: Runes of Virtue II (Super Nintendo Entertainment System). Fujisankei Communications International.
  17. Laguna Gloria Art Museum, "New works by Austin photographers / Melinda Bordelon, Dennis Carlyle Darling, Lawrence McFarland, Casey Williams" exhibition catalog (March 7-April 26, 1987).

Further reading
  • National Lampoon Art Poster Book. Foreword by Matty Smith. New York: National Lampoon. 1975. OCLC 2048397.CS1 maint: others (link)
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