Meet the maker

Melody Bilbo, founder

Melody Bilbo is an interdisciplinary artist working across multiple platforms with a mission to facilitate community through collaboration. She brings concept driven work to life through research and creative experiment, working in a vast array of media including photography, graphic design, painting, and sculpture. Outside of making, her work experience includes curation, project management, and creative direction.

Background

work and education

Melody worked for several years (2006–2013) providing services to adults and children with developmental disabilities, managing a group home and providing one-on-one supports to families in transition. Aside from her day job, she worked under the pseudonym Mella D as a resident DJ and an art curator while pursuing her own painting practice. After several successful shows, Melody went back to school to study art at Parkland College where she made the Dean’s List and received the Blair Kling Award from Giertz Gallery.

She received her BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) in 2017 where she was recipient of the Creative Honors Scholarship. While her declared emphasis was painting, she intentionally chose SAIC for its interdisciplinary approach to education—loading up on photography, graphic design, and administrative coursework. Throughout her experience in school she worked full-time as the Creative Director at a start-up pharmaceutical company, building out their marketing plan and internal process for material development and review.

CURRENT

Collaboration and Community

Upon graduation Melody took the leap into freelance and started her own business a year later, continuing creative direction in commercial marketing. In 2018 she established a creative partnership with colleague Karen Spears of Kareracter LLC, collaborating on campaign concepts merging photography and design. Today they continue to collaborate on projects working with women led teams spanning beauty, wellness, and non-profit industries.

In 2019, Melody co-founded She Makes Chicago with fashion designer Kylee Alexander—an organization with the mission to help womxn makers and entrepreneurs connect, develop, and cultivate community. The platform functions digitally as a resource through their blog and podcast. Melody developed the branding and website, manages their social platforms, curates the blog, and produces the podcast.

In 2020 she launched Queerly Book Club with her friend Mack Ostermier. The book club focuses on queer literature and has a mission to cultivate community through reading, understanding, and affirmation. The book club meets monthly with an open dialogue in response to the readings, hosts a quarterly film viewing, and members collaborate annually on a community advocacy project.

Her studio is located in Chicago’s West Side, where she is accompanied by her Jack Russel assistants, Brusco and Otto who love to make debut on video calls. Melody is a proud queer woman and feminist who upholds the power of community as one of her greatest values. She is eager to use her platform and skillset to work with mission driven brands prioritizing social justice and cultural equity.

Portrait by Jamil Webster

Let’s Connect on IG

@mella.drama