Martha Kelly Art

I’ve been working away on a series of oils on paper for my May nocturne show, but I realized that I’ve been sharing sketches (and got distracted by the #100people and other sketch projects), so I’m slow sharing them here. I’ll go back and take photos and catch up, but in the meantime, here is yesterday’s small oil of the late, lamented Cleveland Street Flea Market.

Here is a sneak preview of my Skyward show that opens next Friday night, November 3rd, from 6-8pm at Eclectic Eye (242 S. Cooper in Memphis). I'll have more than these, but I decided to put up the first batch on my website today.

I've been doing massive amounts of computer work the last few days, which is never as much fun as making art, but I did manage most of a new, small painting for the show next week as well. I've been working to get more serious about an email list. I've always collected them on my paper mailings lists at shows, but I have a printing press I'm in love with, so I haven't been that serious about using email. However, all of the book publishing/marketing emails I've been listening to lately (I'm thinking ahead to the Mr. Darcy book while I paint for the fall show) have really emphasized the importance of an email newsletter. So I've decided to join the 21st Century and dive in, at least occasionally, when I have shows or other important news.

If you'd like to receive an occasional newsletter, please sign up here:

WKNO fm, Memphis's local npr station, hosts a daily arts interview show called Checking on the Arts. They are kind enough to host me to talk about my shows even when I'm not exhibiting in their lobby, but they certainly saved me space on the calendar for this show, "Autobiography," and Kacky Walton interviewed me last week. She and Darel Snodgrass both do serious homework for these interviews, look at work, read websites, and come in prepared to have a great discussion, which is a huge boon for those of us not professional at being on the air. I had a great time with Kacky, and I appreciated her kindness talking about this much more personal than usual work I've been doing lately. Here is the interview with some back story about the exhibition in case you'd like to listen.

It took me all day Wednesday to get the show on the walls the way I wanted it (and to tape the radio interview about it, which I'll post in a day or two), and it took another two days to recover. But I'm really pleased with the result. The space is lovely -- high and clean with tons of natural daylight. It's a lovely space to have art. And it gave me a natural flow for the show, which has a bit of narrative element built in.

The show is open to the public at WKNO during business hours, and there will be a closing reception on Friday, March 31st, 6-8pm.

I'm off to dance and celebrate this weekend, but here are a couple more pieces that are in the show, as a preview.

I'm hanging the show "Autobiography" tomorrow at WKNO, and it will be up for the month of March. There will be a closing reception Friday, March 31, 6-8pm.

As part of the preparation, I'm preparing an artist statement to go with the show, and it's been interesting to think about. This is a much more personal show than I have ever mounted, and the statement reflects that a bit. I've always been fascinated by other artists' self portraits, and it's exciting to get to show my own series at this point in my life.

Here is the statement I've written for the show:

I live a solitary life, which is not the same as a lonely one. This series of work examines my solo world in times of loneliness but also in times of fulfillment. My life is rich with art, music, canine company, and periods of romantic company, but it is still in essence a life lived alone. Society does not give us good images or models for women navigating life alone. There is tremendous pressure to couple up as the only truly appropriate state of being. The word "spinster" contrasted with the word "bachelor" speaks volumes. Society's image of women needing to be coupled ignores the demographic realities that at some point or another in their lives, women are likely to live alone. Women benefit from being able to find happiness and fulfillment within themselves. This exhibition portrays me in moments of varying success at that endeavor. I make art, dance, play music, and walk in forests regularly. Sometimes I do these things alone and sometimes in company. 

I go for years without painting any self portraits, but I find myself doing them again when I am in periods of self examination, upheaval, or transition. Self portraits can feel like the most self-indulgent form of art, a feeling made only stronger by selfies, Facebook, and the proliferation of the appalling selfie sticks. However, they are a centuries old art form. Artists tend to make sense of the world around them by examining it and distilling it onto paper or canvas through the lens of their art. It makes sense that we have the same urge to make sense of ourselves in this literal and tactile way.

This show began with me looking at portraits by Odilon Redon, Edward Hopper, and Andrew Wyeth. It contains not only traditional self portraits but also scenes and places that are deeply personal to me.

One friend told me that the more particularity there is to any story, the more universal it feels. These paintings show me in my own particular world. What I hope is that they are personal but also deeply recognizable on some level to others. I want them to reach and touch and give a feeling of solidarity to others who are navigating solo or examining their places in this enormous, crazy, heartbreaking, magical world that we all live in and have to make sense of for ourselves.

I've been working on two more self portraits this week since getting home from Washington. Here's one inspired by a poem called Polka-Dot Sky. I've always loved those cloud shapes, and the poem made me think back to those Redon portraits in the Orsay I saw last summer with people placed against clouds.

It started off well. I always struggle with faces and almost liked this level of finish better, but I pushed on. Here is the partway through version.

I'm also finally back to working on the self portrait at my easel. I hate the Arches gessoed paper it's on, which sucks down paint, and I had gotten discouraged weeks ago and set it aside for a while. But I finally decided to use my figure painting momentum and pull it back out again. It's close to done but still needs some finishing. The show hangs Tuesday, so I'm racing to both mount and prep everything and also finish as many of the ones in my head as I possibly can in that time.

I'll have a bunch of these in my spring show "Autobiography" at WKNO.

I am so enjoying the Intrude exhibition at Brooks by Amanda Parer. It delights me. Mr. Darcy and I stopped to sketch again yesterday on our way home from the forest. I like the nocturne better, but it was fun to do this one as well.

For some serious happiness, treat yourself to two minutes of Bard Cole's marvelous video of the bunnies, beautifully edited and set to music. He caught me there sketching, but of course Mr. Darcy is the real star of that small clip. Thanks to WKNO for putting this out.

I did a whole show of river paintings some years ago and largely haven't revisited it since. But the river is where you can truly see the sky in Memphis, and skies are fun in oils, and a photographer visiting Memphis got me back down there to sketch. I started this oil this morning, and it will get some cloud work and a second layer after this layer dries.

I'm planning to do a few small river oils for the self portrait show. The show is a wide definition of self portraiture with still lifes and dog/banjo paintings as well as ones of me. The show began as a "woman alone in a large world" series, but it took a turn along the way. Jude Dippold wrote a poem about the first self portrait I did, against the large window in Paris, and I'd like to use several of his poems about me as one lens to see myself in this show. He's also written two with the Mississippi River in them, and I think a few river paintings would complement them nicely. Here is one poem I plan to include in the show.
​

Skagit Dawn

​The last light of a winter's afternoon
glimmers on the hills
above the Skagit.
I hold to that amber glow
with thoughts of blankets
warmed through the night
and the promise
of the sun circling back
to rendezvous
with dawn
over the Mississippi
and you.

Below is the journal sketching working from that I did while we were down at the river last week. I can never catch the sunset the way it looks, but I was pleased with the sketch as a thing in itself after the fact.