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Y'all, what a great week. Memphis Magazine published a truly glowing article about my book that meant so much. Jesse Davis saw what I was trying to do with my art and put it into words better than I ever could have. I'm so grateful. You can read it on their site here. My only regret is that I wasn't smart enough to think of the name Memphabetical for the book itself.
And I mean... "And what beautiful pages they are — Kelly’s paintbrush seems to capture Memphis on those rare and perfect spring days. The Southern sun shines off the glass storefront of A. Schwab on Beale Street and the stained-glass windows in the historic Clayborn Temple. Deep-green shadows pool beneath magnolias at Elmwood Cemetery, seeming to suggest quiet contemplation. Kelly’s artwork is dazzling, and she has trained her eye to look beyond the first thing she notices. In her hands, Memphis is seen lovingly and honestly."
Also this, so exactly what I hoped people to feel, but again, in better words: "The book does not set out to tell some imagined definitive “true story” of Memphis; rather it reads like a series of postcards sent to a close friend. It’s Kelly’s attempt to show the reader Memphis as she sees it, to show what she loves about this multifaceted city by the mighty Mississippi."
So many thanks to Willy Bearden for taking the photo at the top JUST before Memphis Magazine asked for one to use. I didn't have a current one I was happy with and was thrilled to get this one. It's from the Burke's Books signing party back in December. They even did the chalk board specially for me! Here are a couple of less high quality snaps, including one of me and my dad, but I'm in good memories mode this week with the article coming out.
And I mean... "And what beautiful pages they are — Kelly’s paintbrush seems to capture Memphis on those rare and perfect spring days. The Southern sun shines off the glass storefront of A. Schwab on Beale Street and the stained-glass windows in the historic Clayborn Temple. Deep-green shadows pool beneath magnolias at Elmwood Cemetery, seeming to suggest quiet contemplation. Kelly’s artwork is dazzling, and she has trained her eye to look beyond the first thing she notices. In her hands, Memphis is seen lovingly and honestly."
Also this, so exactly what I hoped people to feel, but again, in better words: "The book does not set out to tell some imagined definitive “true story” of Memphis; rather it reads like a series of postcards sent to a close friend. It’s Kelly’s attempt to show the reader Memphis as she sees it, to show what she loves about this multifaceted city by the mighty Mississippi."
So many thanks to Willy Bearden for taking the photo at the top JUST before Memphis Magazine asked for one to use. I didn't have a current one I was happy with and was thrilled to get this one. It's from the Burke's Books signing party back in December. They even did the chalk board specially for me! Here are a couple of less high quality snaps, including one of me and my dad, but I'm in good memories mode this week with the article coming out.
Also this week Channel 5 news saw my book at Dabbles (shout out to Debbie for my best hair cuts, dog love, and her unstinting support of my work) and asked for a feature interview. I met Taylor Tucker at Crosstown and had a lovely chat, which she boiled down into this feature on last night's news:
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It's been a weird Christmas around here, and I haven't sketched or posted as much as I had planned. Winter Arts took a good bit out of me since I was low ebb anyway, and then I got the stomach flu last week. But I recovered enough to enjoy a low key Christmas and do at least a little sketching. I did get a smallish tree up, a Charlie Brown sort of cedar from my family farm, and I've really enjoyed it. It's the kind of tree my family has always had, lucky that we still have a farm to cut one on. I did a sketch of it before the bug got me. And coming back out of it, I managed (at the very last minute) to do this map of the same family farm for my dad for Christmas, putting in all our nicknames for specific places and tucking in several of our dogs and my favorite trees. That felt so good to do, and it's made me think about doing a bit more family sketching as a sort of scrap book.
Then today, still tired from the bug but upright and back on solid foods, I decided a good low key activity would be a little car sketching. I had been eyeing the Bartlett Wine & Spirits with Santa on the rooftop and the canary yellow building as I've been driving to and from the farm this past month. I was afraid Santa would disappear any day, so I drove out and sketched from my car and bought a bottle of wine for the new year. A very satisfying outing. I'm ready to get back to more regular sketching.
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I spent a ton of time this year drawing individual letters, coloring them by hand, and scanning them in and then having to clean up the scanner noise. I had done one experiment years ago to put lettering over a background, and it occurred to me yesterday that I could paint strips of color and scan in black and white text and fill in with my prepared strips instead of doing each letter separately. So these images....
became these:
In order to make the image/logo image background transparent in Photoshop try the following:
1.Right click the image layer in Photosho or use the dropdown layer menu to select ‘Layer From Background’.
2.Select the Magic Wand Tool from the left panel and select the image area you want to be transparent using the Magic Wand Tool. Once selected, click ‘Delete’ on your keyboard. With that done you should see the transparent background (a checkerboard pattern) around the image.If some background areas remained non-transparent, repeat the magic wand for each of those areas.
3. Drag in the background image you want to use and size it behind your main image (or just use the paint bucket to drop a solid color there).
4. Use the paint bucket outside your image (in this case around the letters) to drop white or whatever background color you choose. If your color is digital, it will be one smooth transition. The variations and grainiess in the watercolor meant I had to use the paint bucket on numerous areas and then clean up small bits with the eraser tool, but it's worth it for the paint-on-paper look I want.
Finally I drug that whole block of text into the bookmark I've designed to hand out at the book party Burke's is giving me on Thursday, December 5th from 5-8pm. It's part of Cooper Young Night Out, so stores will be open late and Santa will be in the pavilion. I've never had a book party before, and I'm super excited, which is why I'm diving in with this extra bit of fun. Here's the back of my bookmark to go with my new book:
1.Right click the image layer in Photosho or use the dropdown layer menu to select ‘Layer From Background’.
2.Select the Magic Wand Tool from the left panel and select the image area you want to be transparent using the Magic Wand Tool. Once selected, click ‘Delete’ on your keyboard. With that done you should see the transparent background (a checkerboard pattern) around the image.If some background areas remained non-transparent, repeat the magic wand for each of those areas.
3. Drag in the background image you want to use and size it behind your main image (or just use the paint bucket to drop a solid color there).
4. Use the paint bucket outside your image (in this case around the letters) to drop white or whatever background color you choose. If your color is digital, it will be one smooth transition. The variations and grainiess in the watercolor meant I had to use the paint bucket on numerous areas and then clean up small bits with the eraser tool, but it's worth it for the paint-on-paper look I want.
Finally I drug that whole block of text into the bookmark I've designed to hand out at the book party Burke's is giving me on Thursday, December 5th from 5-8pm. It's part of Cooper Young Night Out, so stores will be open late and Santa will be in the pavilion. I've never had a book party before, and I'm super excited, which is why I'm diving in with this extra bit of fun. Here's the back of my bookmark to go with my new book:
I got fired up about the possibilities for this last night, and I decided to make a digital font of these bubble letters that I can just type into Photoshop (once I download my font) and then fill with my paint samples. I got iFontmaker from the Apple store a couple of years ago and have been playing with making my own handwriting font. It's a super easy to use, draw with your finger on a phone or (recommended) a tablet kind of program. The web addresses on the bookmark are in a font I made called Memoir (which is a free download if anyone wants it just for fun). I've drawn out half of this new alphabet. I did all these letters for P is for Possum, for the cover of Memoir of a House and for Portal, and then all the letters in M is for Memphis. I think I'll use it enough for it to be worth the trouble. This is the fun kind of rabbit hole you can go down with your main show (Rowan Oak, up into January at least) up on the walls already and your book in hand for the holidays. I always enjoy some extra play after a big push.
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It's been a busy week of family in town for big birthdays plus doing the Metal Museum holiday artist market on Saturday. One huge moment for me was one of my nephews taking time out from a busy and fun party to go through M is for Memphis slowly page by page and then come and hug me afterwards. No better feeling.
This week I'm trying to organize my studio and house better and gear up for doing Winter Arts for the first time, a month long beautifully curated artist market in a different area of town than my normal shows, so definitely exciting. I'll be printing more cards and getting prints ready to take out there.
This week I'm trying to organize my studio and house better and gear up for doing Winter Arts for the first time, a month long beautifully curated artist market in a different area of town than my normal shows, so definitely exciting. I'll be printing more cards and getting prints ready to take out there.
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I'm so excited that my new book is here! At least the first 300 copies are. After Novel asked for 100 copies to start, I ordered more immediately, and hopefully they'll be here by the end of November (fingers crossed!). Both local bookstores, Burke's and Novel, have been completely supportive. Burke's has me scheduled for a book party for Cooper Young Night Out on Thursday, December 5th from 5-8pm. I'm going to take the individual watercolors I have from the book to sell as well and really make it a party. Not all the images will be there, since some are from my sketchbook and a handful are from previous commissions that I scanned in before delivering them to the buyers.
This book was so much fun to do. I couldn't even scratch the surface on all the cool places in Memphis, but I put in as many as I could fit. I hope everyone will enjoy it and use it as their jumping off place for exploring all their own favorites.
This book was so much fun to do. I couldn't even scratch the surface on all the cool places in Memphis, but I put in as many as I could fit. I hope everyone will enjoy it and use it as their jumping off place for exploring all their own favorites.
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I did one huge final push, and the book is now uploaded to the printer, and I'm waiting on a series of proofs (both eproofs and a hard copy) before I can order a batch. I'm doing a few tweaks in the meantime, but it is functionally done, which feels great. I was so far behind in early August that I didn't think I could manage it, but a combination of a good run of sketching along with a bunch of days working to lay it out right up till bedtime has me hoping I can get copies back in time for December sales. Printing slows way down in the fall, so no guarantees, but I strongly hope they'll manage it.
Here are a few pages. I did all the art in watercolor and pencil or ink. Some of them are sketches done on site and others I did on my lap on the sofa after gathering photos from around town. I laid out each page with those images in photoshop and then hand wrote the text around the images with an apple pencil on my ipad.
Here are a few pages. I did all the art in watercolor and pencil or ink. Some of them are sketches done on site and others I did on my lap on the sofa after gathering photos from around town. I laid out each page with those images in photoshop and then hand wrote the text around the images with an apple pencil on my ipad.
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It took me getting to Washington to get to a scanner and clean up my St. Louis sketches. I love to draw there and did some smaller, faster sketches as well as full watercolors. This first one is walnut ink with a dip pen of an Osage Orange tree. They always grow in such fascinating shapes.
I also got a fantastic blueberry/lemon curd crepe from a food truck creperie that flashed me back to Paris. I loved both the food and the fun little bus, so I did a sketch to remember.
I also got a fantastic blueberry/lemon curd crepe from a food truck creperie that flashed me back to Paris. I loved both the food and the fun little bus, so I did a sketch to remember.
There was also a great book signing at the graphic bookstore Betty’s Books. Beautifully they got in an art hero of mine Lucy Knisley. I found her first graphic memoir An Age of License some years ago, and it (plus my first Ben Hatke book found at the same time) made me want to include more storytelling in my work, which had been purely landscape up until that point. She had a huge influence on my work, and I trace a direct line back from her book to doing several of my own, even if they’re quite different in feel. It was fantastic to hear her talk, meet her in person, and see her delightful hand painted cat dress.
One more lovely day in town was revisiting the St. Louis Art Museum, another favorite place. They had a Vuillard I don’t remember from before on view this time, which makes sense because it’s on cardboard and probably needs to rest for preservation purposes in between times out in the light. I love his patterned interiors and interlocking shapes and had fun doing a sketch while standing in front of it.
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I have always loved those golden age British mysteries with a map at the front. Probably because my dad collects maps and often hand drew ones for us to follow along with from the back seat on family vacations. Since all the trees in the exhibition at Rowan Oak are actually on the grounds of Faulkner’s home, I thought it would be fun to give people the opportunity for a self guided scavenger hunt to compare the prints with the originals.
There are no prizes, but if there were, there would definitely be extra credit for Portrait III, which is by far the trickiest to spot.
There are no prizes, but if there were, there would definitely be extra credit for Portrait III, which is by far the trickiest to spot.
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I've been getting back into printmaking, which is slow to have something to show, but I've also been doing smaller things over the past week or so. One is finding the best baklava I've had (by a lot) on this continent, and doing a little sketch of it in Diamine Ancient Copper ink plus watercolor. Sometimes the ink gets too hot, but sometimes it's really right and rich, and it felt right here. If you're in striking range, getting down to the Mediterranean Bakery and More market in Southaven, MS, is so, so worth it. Ridiculously worth it.
Speaking of worth it, I also took a mini, free online illustration portfolio class with Mike Lowery, an illustrator I follow on IG and admire. I generally dislike online classes, but this one was in easy bite-sized chunks, and we did one achievable project. He walked us through both Photoshop and Procreate for adjusting a basic on-paper sketch, and I learned how to color in layers. Usually I just clean up finished watercolors. I mostly like to work on paper, but this is a good, small set of starter skills I'm happy to have. The project was to make a sticker, and I haven't ordered them yet (I'm still tinkering with the lettering on the Woman's Best Friend one), but I plan to. (I mean, how did men get dogs and women got stuck with diamonds?? What a racket. I'm making a play for the dogs.)
Speaking of worth it, I also took a mini, free online illustration portfolio class with Mike Lowery, an illustrator I follow on IG and admire. I generally dislike online classes, but this one was in easy bite-sized chunks, and we did one achievable project. He walked us through both Photoshop and Procreate for adjusting a basic on-paper sketch, and I learned how to color in layers. Usually I just clean up finished watercolors. I mostly like to work on paper, but this is a good, small set of starter skills I'm happy to have. The project was to make a sticker, and I haven't ordered them yet (I'm still tinkering with the lettering on the Woman's Best Friend one), but I plan to. (I mean, how did men get dogs and women got stuck with diamonds?? What a racket. I'm making a play for the dogs.)
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I've mostly been doing book work lately, illustrations meant specifically for M is for Memphis. I'm excited about how it's going, but I also feel myself tighten up a bit when I'm painting for a purpose like that. It felt good yesterday to take advantage of a sunny 60 degree day and go get chai with my partner and then head over to the park for some sky studies. The clouds had been amazing as we sat on the cafe deck, but they were moving rapidly out by the time I got to the park and was settled on a picnic table with Henry tethered beside me to hang out.
I did one quick cloud study as the front piece to a new sketchbook. I'm kind of excited about this one. It's a Handbook watercolor book, like my normal bigger (8x8") size, but it's 8x4" or so. I had a vertical one this summer that was 8x10". It was fun to branch out of my normal landscape format double truck and have something more upright, but it was SO much real estate to cover that I was a little reluctant to start a piece if I didn't feel I had a good long time. I don't need a sketchbook that makes me reluctant to open it. The nice thing about that one was that it was slightly landscape format, but tallish, when open. This one is purely square, which isn't my favorite, but it's good to mix up my shapes, and I love the size. I stumbled on it in an art store out west and have been waiting to finish my last bigger Handbook to start the new one. I had fun and did a sycamore tree I love against the blue, blue sky once the clouds had gone. I'll be curious to see how this format feels as I use it more.
I did one quick cloud study as the front piece to a new sketchbook. I'm kind of excited about this one. It's a Handbook watercolor book, like my normal bigger (8x8") size, but it's 8x4" or so. I had a vertical one this summer that was 8x10". It was fun to branch out of my normal landscape format double truck and have something more upright, but it was SO much real estate to cover that I was a little reluctant to start a piece if I didn't feel I had a good long time. I don't need a sketchbook that makes me reluctant to open it. The nice thing about that one was that it was slightly landscape format, but tallish, when open. This one is purely square, which isn't my favorite, but it's good to mix up my shapes, and I love the size. I stumbled on it in an art store out west and have been waiting to finish my last bigger Handbook to start the new one. I had fun and did a sycamore tree I love against the blue, blue sky once the clouds had gone. I'll be curious to see how this format feels as I use it more.
