Speck Mellencamp is an oil painter whose work explores the human condition through figurative compositions that blend contemporary subjects with classical painting techniques.

His kinship with the German Expressionism of the early twentieth century, with its existential focus on the human condition, serves as the foundation for the development of his artistic vision. The influences of Otto Dix and Max Beckmann are evident in his bold portraiture and narrative compositions.

Working primarily in oil on canvas, Speck creates large-scale portraits and mixed-media pieces that document America's heart and soul, revealing unsettling but beautiful truths with a kind of anti-establishment honesty. His paintings are carefully composed through the structural requirements of harmony, rhythm, and order.

Like the work of his father, John Mellencamp, Speck's paintings are thematically in line with the small-town, earnest voice of the heartland—raw, authentic, and deeply American.