Melinda Camber Porter was born in London and graduated from Oxford University with a First Class Honors degree in Modern Languages. She began her writing career in Paris as a cultural correspondent for The Times of London. French culture is the subject of her book Through Parisian Eyes (published by Oxford University Press), which the Boston Globe describes as "a particularly readable and brilliantly and uniquely compiled collection."
Her novel Badlands, a Book-of-the-Month Club selection, was set on South Dakota's Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and acclaimed by Louis Malle, who said: "better than a novel, it reads like a fierce poem, with a devastating effect on our self-esteem," and by Publishers Weekly, which called it, "a novel of startling, dreamlike lyricism."
A traveling USA art exhibition celebrating Camber Porter's paintings (1993-1997), curated by the late Leo Castelli.
Peter Trippi, Editor of Fine Art Connoisseur magazine said: "In our era of slickly produced images, teeming with messages rather than feelings, Camber Porter's art strikes a distinctive balance between the achingly personal and the aesthetically beautiful. This equilibrium has developed, at least in part, through her discerning openness to a range of historical mentors, William Blake being the figure she has admired most passionately," and "not surprisingly Camber Porter finds particular pleasure in Gauguin's notebooks, which erase the boundaries between image and word."
Camber Porter's paintings have also served as the primary inspiration and as backdrops for her musical theatrical works: Night Angel, with music by Carman Moore, and Journey to Benares, with music, by Elizabeth Swados.
Robin Hamlyn, noted world expert on William Blake and senior curator of Tate Britain's Blake and Turner collections, delivered a lecture and wrote a book on Ms. Porter's watercolors entitled, William Blake Illuminates the Works of Melinda Camber Porter. Mr. Hamlyn writes about Ms. Porter, "I believe that all great art is, in its essence, defined by fearlessness. Both Melinda Camber Porter's and William Blake's works exemplify and illuminate the fearlessness that is part of the very essence of all great art."
Melinda Camber Porter Archive of Creative Works documents the prolific and creative legacy of Camber Porter in volumes of art and literature.
Walter Wickiser is a long time established New York art gallery owner and musician.
