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Kelly
Moore in 2006 |
Kelly's large magnificent untitled work known as 'untitled
2003' was chosen as the cover for the Arts Centre of
the Ozarks annual program guide in Arkansas for the
2003-2004 season. Originally a native son of Arkansas,
Kelly now resides in the New Mexico desert . |
It’s still a wonderful challenge
to describe the contemporary art of Kelly Moore. Early on in his
career he was labelled a Primitive and Outsider. Too, early 20th
century cubists whisper, and Kandinsky gives a nod of approval.
The Einsteinian equation title above gives another hint. The techniques
and talents can be loosely compared to such masters in Kelly’s
work, but the emotion is cleansing, the taste quite raw. So his
art must be edible.
Kelly himself admits he paints quickly. Pre-thought and spontaneous
inspiration mingle, opposites though they may be. His paint comes
from a rain cloud or an inner demon. The canvas is forgiving and drinks
and spills over, and becomes a painting, an art form known as Kelly
Moore. His paintings are not sensual in the sexual sense, but rather,
sensory – touching, feeling, yet never fully revealing..(He
has been photographed painting in gloves. Many natural artist oil
paints contain toxic chemicals, and can off-gas or be absorbed through
the skin when wet.)
His finished canvases have the dreamworld quality
of a field filled with magic truffles. Our eyes become our mouths, through which
Kelly’s magic enters our secret beings and imparts understanding of his
art cosmos. He starts by giving us an often undefinable-by-words impression,
and completion comes afterward from the viewer’s own imagination. And he
knows that we can know the full circle of his creations by feeling alone.
So nibble slowly at Kelly’s paintings. His
message is in the departed paint, the dry idea, residual trauma and the electric
energy of his gormandized palette. The art is night and day, and throbs with
innocence and darkness, wildness and escapism. He is frequently haunted and blessed
by puppet images. The question is, do they own him or guide him, or is he the
tamer? Yes, you must eat Kelly’s paintings, and digest, for a long time,
until meaning metamorphoses into the abstract and shuts the door until it wants
to open into an ever more expanding vista of eclectic hocus-pocus.
continued below … |
Flower
Picker (12x16 oil on canvas): This is a benign easy-to-like
little
character out on a sunny day picking flowers. Jean-Michel Basquiat
couldn't have done it better. |
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Don't Drink the Poison Water (8x10 multi-media on paper) Another
image propelled from Kelly's imagination and philosophies. |
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From left to right, Animal (12x16), Self Portrait
With My Friends (24x30) and Fish are People (16x20) are all examples
of Kelly's work in oil textured with sand. |
In the meantime you’ll
accept the outer sensory; there is the undeniable urge to touch his
paintings, especially those composed with sand and other elements.
These works of art give the impression that they want to speak to you,
or have said something already when you weren’t listening. His “beauty” (as
euphorically depicted in the issue cover image) line of art is both
cosmetic and free-spirited, a miasma of mystery and almosts.
Like a young Picasso, Kelly has experimented with mixed media and produced
some highly original collages, filled with critiques of our modern
day commercialism, or delving into painful personal experiences. In
one, a woman is seen walking out a door with an overwhelming sense
of endings and beginnings. Another road has taken him into fetishism
and spirit-gods, using found objects to create three-dimensional mystical
art. Again, a predominant motif is the inculpable ravaged homunculus
soul. This reappearing figment in all of Kelly’s media leads
one to suspect he is looking for himself in his art, or is utilizing
the style of expressionism to express himself in ways he cannot give
voice to, for whatever reason. He does not intentionally create a garden
path to lead one down to explanation. We must look for the path, and
unravel the ball of string for ourselves. Perhaps as we find Kelly,
we find more of ourselves, hence the attraction to his art in the first
place. continued below …
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Left:
Black Frog (36x36 multi-media on canvas) A traditional occult
symbol,
the black frog is the
quiet subject of this storyteller canvas reminiscent of ancient
cave paintings. Right: Requiem for Little Red Riding Hood (24
inches tall, found items): Kelly explained in a recent e-mail
message to collectors that many of the components of his art
fetish work were found in an arroyo (creekbed) in Sante Fe.
Unusual, yet striking, the detailing on the figure is intricate,
and again there is the prescient feel of the recurrent figment
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What Kelly ultimately conveys is a perception of the unlimited in everything
- extraordinary wonder, deep penance of conscience and the possible
suggestion that there is no dividing line between the conscious and
the unconscious mood or action. Freud has not yet been born in Kelly’s
dares of convention. Has he pooh-poohed contemporary society or simply
given up on it? Perhaps the further secret lies in the clues in his
poetry. Between the word and the image, maybe there Kelly can be found.
Explained. Unexplained. Equalled in the past. Unequalled in the contemporary
eye.
Catapilar
(8x10 multi-media on paper) Here, the recurring puppet creature has transmutably taken flight |
THE EMPRESS INTERVIEW:
Editor's note and preface:
When Kelly responded to
these interview questions in his own form of "homonym-geous" speak,
I asked him if he’d mind if I revise some words to reflect
standard spelling and usage.
Kelly’s response below explains
his unique attitude about how words are art, too:
Hi Lorraine,
u will bee chopping the bile out of the Liver if u reduce it to
comfortable
keep it real
its good to bee
made uncomfortable in our lazy world
people
mite ask "why?"
and that is art.
k
THE EMPRESS INTERVIEW:
Are you
ever tempted to lean toward more "classic" styles,
or would that compromise or interfere with expression?
eye have no idea what
classic means ... eye thought eye was classic?
Where does your art
originate within you?
in a place of non-thinking.
its quite mysterious and something beyond me eye think.
Do you generally plan
paintings or are they wholly spontaneous?
immediate, raw, pure,
occasionally insane. these are words eye like.
What started you painting
in your 30s? Was it a single lightning bolt or a combination of factors?
it
took a series of strong jolts in my life to "wake up." eye
am a tough person and that can bee our largest challenge
in the material world between ourselves and our higher self. surrender
is an important
part of my work.
Is painting compulsive
for you - do you find you must paint?
eye have no other reason
to live.
Do paintings ever
come to you in your dreams?
my
paintings are my dreams eye am just not sure if eye am dreaming
when eye sleep or when eye
think eye am "awake." which
one is real?
What is a painting
like the "Flower Picker" – the blue-hatted
person in a stand of yellow tulips – all
about?
eye have no idea.
What do you enjoy
painting most?
cuts, bleeding, ruptures.
tomorrow it will prolly bee flowers and children. eye
am many things.
Please explain about
the "light
and dark in your soul" that
you reveal in your art.
know thyself.
Article and interview
copyright © 2006:
L. Chrystal Dmitrovic Kelly Moore's Gallery 2005-2006
Kelly Moore's Blog (musings and poetry)
Resumé of Showings/Exhibits
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