The artist herself, R. Melinda Hoffman.
R. Melinda Hoffman was born in Washington, D.C., and grew up in Chicago's gritty, vibrant inner city. Her passion for creativity led her to the School of the Art Institute, where she studied art, photography, and fashion design. After retiring from a prolific career in fashion as a designer, set builder, art director, visual manager, and buyer, Hoffman forged a new path as an artist, showcasing her works at galleries, travel shows, and now form & concept. Read her interview to learn more about her practice and what inspired her latest exhibition, Accoutrements, Amulets, Adornments.
R. MELINDA HOFFMAN | Belted Cell Phone Case (Tan), 2025. Leather, repurposed found object hardware, 23 x 5 x 1/2 in (58.4 x 12.7 x 1.3 cm). Photo by Marylene Mey, courtesy of form & concept
Spencer Linford: You mentioned your early idea journals and sketchbooks were catalysts for this exhibition. Could you share more about these texts, the period they come from, and the creative inspiration they contain?
R. Melinda Hoffman: It’s a funny and delightful feeling to come across my old sketchbooks, particularly from 1993, when I found a photocopy of a magazine image of Donald Sutherland.
It was in a 1993 Vogue magazine, where Sutherland was wearing a neck piece made with an actual shower head, with water droplets made of pearls. I glued that image in my sketchbook along with quick sketches of other mundane household items as wearable accessories. A phone as a bra with its coiled cord as the straps, a drain stop as a pocket plug, a faucet handle as a belt buckle. It’s the quintessential “origin story” that I uncovered 40 years later.
It now explains why I’m so intrigued with bringing ordinary objects into the spotlight and showing how beautiful they are when put into another context or viewed with another perspective.
R. MELINDA HOFFMAN | Faucet Handle "H" Necklace from the series Anthropological Artifacts, 2025. Leather, antique faucet handle, drop 15 1/2 in (39.4 cm). Photo by Marylene Mey, courtesy of form & concept
SL: Could you give us a sampling of questions you posed to the community who visited your exhibition and participated in your workshops?
RMH: I wanted to involve and encourage visitors and the community to participate in the direction and discussion of the exhibition, so I posted different questions on the chalkboard, along with the date, then photographed the chalkboard at the end of the day to archive what our community was feeling during this unprecedented period. For example:
Thursday, April 3, 2025
What tool would you invent to deal with today's headline news?
“a laser that could freeze-dry an entire House, a White one….maybe in DC.”
“guillotine”
“helmet and eye shield (with cool house music)”
Friday, April 4, 2025
If you could write a postcard to your future self, what would it say?
“hindsight is 20/25”
“be careful what you wish for”
Saturday, April 5, 2025
What are you wearing today that defines you?
“my ‘Free Palestine’ hoodie”
“my pork pie hat”
Thursday, April 10, 2025
How are you being a good ancestor?
“by healing intergenerational trauma”
“recycling and repurposing”
R. MELINDA HOFFMAN | Car Hood Ornament Necklace, 2025. Leather, hood ornament, drop length 15 in (38.1 cm). Photo by Marylene Mey, courtesy of form & concept
SL: In addition to being a gallery artist, you are also the founder of the lifestyle brand modernmuse61. How does running a brand inform or not inform your gallery-focused practice? Do the two endeavors overlap? If so, how?
RMH: …to inspire, and be inspired…
That phrase is what I chose to stamp into the belt that I made for myself back in 2011, and I’ve been wearing that belt every day since!
After working 30+ years in the fashion and design industry, I grew weary of the pressure of producing “fast fashion.” After a stint working for a leather company, I found my new passion. I started making my own leather accessories for my new lifestyle of living free and minimally as well as on the road as a leather artisan. That led to my brand, modernmuse61.
In history, muses have generally been young women who have inspired mostly male artists. As a modern muse, I believe in collaboration and community, and an exchange of forward-thinking ideas.
My creative journey has led me to create wearable adornment, accoutrements, and everyday accessories from leather, found objects, and recycled/repurposed/discarded objects. I find beauty in the ordinary and the often overlooked, presenting them in new ways that disarm and delight.
Navigating my evolution, I am now combining my background in art and design with my love of photography and charcoal drawing. I am challenging what is considered beautiful, and inviting all muses to join me.
R. MELINDA HOFFMAN | Chastity Belt from the series, Anthropological Artifacts, 2022. Antique lock, hardware, leather belt 33 in (83.8 cm), variable pendant, 3 1/2 x 2 1/4 x 1 in (8.9 x 5.7 x 2.5 cm). Photo by Byron Flesher, courtesy of form & concept
SL: In recent pop culture, from RuPaul’s Drag Race to memes about Melania Trump’s imposing suit on the President’s inauguration day, we have seen dress emerge as a kind of armor against social expectations. Many of your functional items, like your cell phone cases, could be seen as ‘armor’ against a disposable, character-neutral consumer culture. And your helmets and tiaras present an even more ornate and conspicuous kind of armor. Can you explain your choice to reappropriate common domestic objects like colanders and knives as the crown jewels of these works? What themes are these pieces engaging with?
RMH: I feel that the curator Isabella Beroutsos’s description of my work serves as a perfect response to your question: “R. Melinda Hoffman is known for transforming antique functional objects into jewelry and other wearables. Her work demonstrates on a large scale the artist’s fascination with domestic tools as “anthropological artifacts” symbolizing traditional ideals of womanhood. Employing found vintage items including vegetable steamers, bootlace hooks, measuring spoons, a cherry pitter, and a calf weaner, Hoffman recasts these objects as armor and weapons that puncture entrenched paradigms of gender and class.”
R. MELINDA HOFFMAN | Queen of Tarts Crown from the series Anthropological Artifacts, 2025. Antique measuring spoons, leather belt, hardware, 5 3/4 x 6 3/4 x 6 3/4 in (14.6 x 17.1 x 17.1 cm). Photo by Marylene Mey, courtesy of form & concept
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