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Graphic essay

4/6/2019

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I’ve been quiet sharing art all week because I’m working on a graphic essay that I’m crossing my fingers and hoping to get published, so I can’t share more than a couple of small details. We’re getting close the Memphis zoo asphalting over more of our gorgeous Overton Park as a parking lot, and another 70-90 of the trees given for my mom will have to, at best, be moved, and may likely not make it. The zoo killed 27 without warning or permission several years ago. It’s breaking my heart, and I’ve realized that this voice is really all I have. At worst I push this grief on out, and at best I get the entire shameful process a little more publicity.
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Here are several sketches I did at the time in my sketchbook that I’ve pulled back out as reference material. Watch this space for more to come. If I can’t find it a home, I’ll put it on my own website.
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Night on Beale

2/7/2019

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What do you do when you have music fans visiting Memphis? You take them to Beale Street. And when you're really lucky, you'll spot Blind Mississippi Morris wheeling his amp toward a club, holding onto the arm of his "manager," as he calls her in air quotes. It was a fantabulous night with legit, old school Delta blues and an out of this world bass player.
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Memphis Symphony Stravinsky and Robert Johnson mashup

1/20/2019

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The Memphis Symphony did an unusual concert last night. Our new conductor Robert Moody noticed striking parallels in the devil at the crossroads stories of Stravinsky and Robert Johnson and decided to do a mashup. He used a chamber group and brought in bluesman Vashti Jackson to both be narrator and to play Johnson's blues interspersed with the Stravinsky pieces. There was also dancing and and an actor and film bits shown as well. It sounded a bit bizarre, but it really worked. My companion noted that both musical forms have a strong percussiveness.

I had hoped to mix some ink that would be a lighter flesh tone in a brush pen (those are hard to mix in the dark of a theater), and I tested it at the top right before going. It was a sad failure and ended up both grainy and with the turkey basting quality of old TCM colorized films. I ended up just doing a series of line drawings in various pens, though I did add in the red suede shoes and matching tie of Mr. Jackson. It was a fun night.
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More Inktober

10/31/2018

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I've been mostly DOING Inktober even though I've been bad about posting here lately. Most days I've managed one ink sketch, but the majority of my work this past week has been tons of computer work (taking my attention from scanning for other purposes) to get the Mr. Darcy Goes Home book and the related counting book ready to send out. I've got a mid November deadline to be able to submit to my dream publisher without needing an agent first, so I'm working flat out to get it ready. I'll show a couple of reject sketches from that process here, but for now, a few more Inktober sketches to show what I've been up to around the edges.

Above is the Side Street Steppers. Below is one sketch as I was stopped at a train on my way to a printmaking demonstration at Dixon (I'll be doing several more of those) plus a quick sketch waiting in line at Home Depot, buying materials to shore up my floor to receive the type cabinet (see the last blog post).
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I've been still practicing people when I get the chance, so at right are a handful of sketches from lunch at the Majestic downtown. Below is one quick page during last weekend. I almost never draw at dance weekends -- my only real vacation from art, complete and total, but I did do a few on Saturday, knowing it was Inktober and trying not to flake out completely.
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Plus I always enjoy drawing treats, as a way to keep enjoying them, and also remember nice days I've spent with other people. Here is one of those, just to round things out.
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Side Street Steppers

9/27/2018

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I had an awesome night out last night. It's been so good to be back in Memphis after so much traveling since early May. I showed up, hung out and had the very best local BBQ (Central BBQ, although "best" is always a bit of a conversation for Memphians), fed my baby nephew his green beans, caught up with my sister and her husband, and heard one of my favorite local bands. They're friends as well, who do a high energy show of music from the 1860's to the 1960's, as well as occasionally beyond. I love their songs and have drawn them over the years, and my favorite singer/washboard player is going emerius. Mandy Nicole Gauvin has been with the band five years, but her work schedule has pressed as the band schedule has also expanded. So last night we were celebrating her participation in the band as well as Christian Stanfield's birthday.
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I had meant to go back and do more painting after dinner, but other friends showed up, and I just hung out and drunk it all in. I even got to sit in with the band. Christian, with no warning, called me up and handed me a banjo and told me to pick a song to sing. I had a blast singing with such a great group of musicians. My sister filmed part of it, and just for fun, that will be in a second blog post (too much to load with all these sketches as well).
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I had started off with a fountain pen and meant to do watercolor as well, but after painting all day, I didn't have painting energy. It's nice to have a bit of a sketching kit and some different options. I ended up pulling out the ink brush pens after the first page of line drawings. It's fun to try to capture likenesses with a little bit broader stroke.

Last night I actually did much better with the brushes. Go figure.
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Side Street Steppers Addendum

9/27/2018

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I was going to post this with the sketches from seeing this band, but I decided that would be too much to load on one page. I usually just talk about art here, but Christian called me up from the audience last night and had me play and sing a song. It was such a rush to get to play with a great band, one I admire, and music feeds my artwork. It's nice to have that energy going back and forth. So I decided for once to put a little music up on this blog as well. Usually I just play for fun on Mondays in a friend's back living room, but I really had a good time sitting in with these great folks. The bonus is I got really exited about playing and learned three new songs in the week since. Creative energy is always welcome.
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People at the Sunday Market

7/29/2018

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I got to Paris just in time for the weekend markets, which are about my favorite things here. My friends Rene and Dede were playing, and I hung out, listened to them, and drew people. Most of these are brush pens with Sumi ink in them (two different strengths), and a couple are fountain pen.

I had a blow walking over though. My spiritual home here was Dubois art supply store, which had been here since 1861. Apparently gelato chain stores draw big crowds, but multi-generational neighborhood shops can no longer afford the rent. I’m heartbroken. I’d been trying to decide which ink I wanted to buy from them this year. Many of my writer friends adore Shakespeare and Co. for its history and atmosphere. Dubois was that for me.
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Bill and the Belles

7/10/2018

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I got to go to a great house concert over the weekend. My banjo mentor had seen a group from Johnson City called Bill and the Belles and liked them enough that he arranged for them to play in Memphis when they were passing through on the road. They were marvelous. Old time swing, lots of songs from the teens and twenties, a good dose of Jimmie Rodgers, and a bunch of new songs that sound delightfully old. As usual, I sketched as well as listening. This group is used to artwork too. They're the only band I know that has an original linocut of the group for sale along with the usual cds and stickers. It was as old timey as they are, so of course I came home with it, along with my own sketches.
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Banjo girl print underway

12/28/2017

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One of the great things about Christmas being over is that now I once more have time to make art for myself. I love commissions, but I have a backlog of ideas that I am now champing at the bit to get to. Steady readers of this blog will remember this block from back in October. I had meant it to be a single, black and white (or brown and white) image, but I began to wonder about putting color behind it. I've carved a second block, and yesterday was its first test run. I have to fix places where the color drops down into the figure, and I'm doing a bit more refinement as I go, but it's close to what I want. The orange definitely amplifies the 70's vibe it already had, but I'm a child of the 70's, so that works for me. I'm hoping it conveys the joy I feel when I play music.
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Sketching Music

8/21/2017

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One of my favorite things to do in Paris is hang out with my friends Rene Miller and Stephen Harrison while they play. Rene is from Louisiana and plays masterful slide blues on an old metal resonator guitar, but he mixes in all kinds of other songs as well and always makes them his own. I so admire that about his performances. He's also been playing on the street here for 25 years or so and is an unflappable master of accepting all kinds of odd happenings and weaving them into the show. Stephen is a fabulous bass player (touring with various folks as well as playing with the orchestra here), and he joins Rene when he's in town. They're magic together.

This past weekend they were set up on the bridge by Hotel de Ville, and I spent chunks of both days sitting out on a park bench and listening and chatting with them and watching the people watch them. And sketching. Of course.
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I was using a Pentel dark, smallish brush pen. I've been wanting to work on my people, since I'm enjoying the idea of more illustration, so I did a ton of gestures sitting out there through the Sunday midday.
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I was also kind of fascinated by their shadows extending towards me and did a couple of quick watercolor sketches, one with the bridge railing in it and one without.
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    Martha Kelly is an artist and illustrator who lives and works in Memphis, Tennessee.


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  • HOME
  • PRINTS
  • WATERCOLORS
    • Memphis
    • Paris
    • England
    • France
    • Greece and Turkey
    • St. Louis
    • My Palette
  • OILS
  • ILLUSTRATION
  • SKETCHES
    • Quarantine Journal
    • Memphis
    • Overton Park
    • Mr. Darcy
    • Mr. Darcy's Odyssey
    • Musicians
    • Tea
    • Dutch travelogue
    • Shakertown travelogue
    • Sketching tools
  • LITURGICAL
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  • SHOP