Art su 16
by Michele Malinchak
Artist Kelly Sullivan admits she has a restless nature. She’s tended bar, ran a cafe with her husband in Idaho, drove 14 hours to get a blues legend’s autograph and almost sank on a boat in China sneaking into a botanical garden. Throughout it all, she has captured her experiences in paint and inspired others through her collaborative art for more than 20 years.
The Restless Road is the name of the current exhibition at her Lambertville, NJ gallery, but it could also be a metaphor of her life. The interactive show, which runs through August 1, is accompanied by short stories, poems and videos from her travels. One video lets you watch as enthusiastic villagers in Uganda welcome her with song and dance and then listen to Kelly talk about the importance of art. She has often said, “I believe art is the fourth human need right after food, water and shelter.”
Also in the exhibit is a portrait of a young Asian boy entitled, The Leaf King. Here is an excerpt from a poem Kelly wrote about the crown of leaves he wears: “A self made crown because I’m the king, I’ve conquered the beast; you’re under my wing. Clean air and rivers for all there will be, No more sickness, you will see.” He goes on to tell of an ideal world where peace and harmony prevail under his reign.
In another work entitled, Barbed Wire, a Ugandan girl peers over a barbed wire fence with one hand curled around it. The wire runs just beneath her haunting eyes, which become the focal point in this emotionally charged work.
She also depicts the peaceful solitude of a boy peddling down a rural road in Uganda with freshly harvested maize on the back of his bicycle in her painting, Fresh Cut. On her website, Kelly stated: “I am captivated by the differences and similarities in all of us and I am taken by the challenge of trying to read that human spirit on a flat surface.”
The show also includes portraits of local residents like Little Drummer Boy and the portrait of her daughter, “Aidan,” that won the Oil Painters of America award in 2013. “The Belly Dancer,” also in the show, won an award at the 2011 Phillips Mill Art Exhibition. In addition to her figurative work, Kelly’s subjects include impressionist landscapes and still life. Recently she’s also been experimenting with mixed media abstractions.
Painting almost entirely plein air, Kelly finishes work in her spacious studio just a block away from her gallery. Located on the third floor of the People’s Antique Store, the studio has 12-foot tin ceilings and old, creaking wooden floorboards. Three tall stepladders serve as bookshelves for her vast collection of art books that almost reach the ceiling. The building is said to be haunted and there is one light bulb that won’t stay lit no matter what she does, but it doesn’t faze her. “I feel good when I’m here, like I really belong.”
Seeking greater complexity in her work, she switched from acrylics to oils in 2009. She became addicted to the study of art and took a few classes with nationally recognized artists. “All I ever wanted to do was study art and be a great painter,” she said.
Being an artist has been in her blood since childhood, but it’s not just her natural ability that has brought her this far. It’s also been her passion, tenacity and grit that have fueled her artistic journey. “It takes a lot of tenacity to maintain a career in the arts,” she said. “It’s a trade-off for things like stability and a pension.”
Largely self-taught, she was inspired by a grandmother who dabbled in art. Painting since the age of five, Kelly is a unique blend of artist, innovator, leader, organizer, teacher, writer, and social activist. Not to mention ambassador for the good will she extends during her travels. “The search for community is in everything I do,” she said. “I need it—the world needs it.”
Born in New Brunswick, NJ in 1964, Kelly spent her childhood in Clinton Township and graduated in 1982 from Immaculata High School in Somerville. Always interested in music, she played the organ and as a teenager drew portraits of her favorite musicians like Jim Morrison and David Bowie. More than anything she wanted to study art, but art school wasn’t in the budget. Besides, her father insisted she pursue a practical career like nursing. Unwillingly, she enrolled at Cedar Crest College in Allentown but only lasted one year. “I never wanted to be a nurse,” she said.
She moved back home briefly and then all over NJ as she tried to make her way. While living in the Princeton area, she took a job selling art at the Martin Lawrence Galleries in Forrestal Village. That didn’t work out either. “I wanted to paint, not sell art,” she said. Briefly she moved to Lambertville before heading down to Spring Lake, NJ to join her mother and siblings who had moved there after her parents divorced.
There she found a market for her pencil and pastel drawings, but felt disconnected and craved interaction with the larger art community. An opportunity arose in 1989 when she produced her first collaborative show in Spring Lake Heights featuring five diverse artists. The show, called Montage, won wide acclaim and set the stage for future productions.
In 1990 she moved to San Francisco where she tended bar for seven years and painted. She produced another group show and festival, ’94 Montage, this time featuring 15 artists. Limited funding forced her to come up with a way of providing a hands-on painting experience for guests at the weeklong show. The idea for FingerSmears was born, using one large canvas and the hands of hundreds who painted with their fingers instead of brushes.
Since its introduction in 1994, FingerSmears has become an integral part of her career. Almost 80,000 people from around the world have dipped their fingers in paint to promote products, commemorate events or raise money for charities. The largest one was created in 2009 at the National Walk for Epilepsy on the Mall in Washington, D.C. Consisting of four canvases, each measured 4.5 by 7 feet. Thousands of people waited in four lines to paint after they crossed the finish line.
Kelly is present during each painting event and is assisted by other artists. First she’ll sketch a design onto the canvas, which is supported by metal stretcher bars. Painters select a color and dab it onto the canvas, sign their names and later wipe their excess paint on Kelly’s white artist’s shirt, which she saves. She then fine tunes the painting and fixes areas if needed.
Some famous celebrities who have done FingerSmears include Bruce Springsteen, Harrison Ford, Carol Burnett and the Rolling Stones. Rock and Roll Voodoo was one of the first FingerSmears ever created during the Stones’ Voodoo Lounge Tour in 1994. Reluctant at first, Mick Jagger said no and was about to walk away when Kelly snagged him. She asked, “How about now?” and he dipped his finger in paint and made his mark.
After living in San Francisco seven years she moved into a warehouse with cheap rent in a dicey neighborhood. Kelly ended up marrying one of her roommates and she and her husband, Tom, moved to Coeur D’Alene, Idaho. They bought an old feed store and turned it into a coffeehouse, then a restaurant. Adding an outdoor beer garden and music venue, they called it Tubs Cafe.
Kelly had painted portraits of blues artists like BB King, Clarence Clemons, John Lee Hooker and Koko Taylor to decorate the walls of the cafe. She wanted to have them signed by the singers and often traveled great distances to do so. One trip involved driving from Coeur D’Alene to Spokane, WA to have BB King sign his portrait. Another time she and her husband drove 14 hours to Las Vegas to get John Lee Hooker’s autograph and received backstage passes to see the show.
In 2000 her portraits of musicians were featured in a rock and roll art exhibition at Ambassador Galleries in New York City’s Soho district. Some of the musicians whose paintings were displayed included Gerry Garcia, John Entwistle from The Who, Ronnie Wood of the Rolling Stones, Marty Balin from Jefferson Airplane and Tico Torres from Bon Jovi’s band. “I thought I’d be famous after that show,” she said, “but it didn’t happen.”
She and her husband ran Tubs Cafe for five years, but after having two small children, Aidan and Liam, it became overwhelming. Kelly had begun to do well with FingerSmears and wanted to be back on the East Coast where the work was. They moved to Wanamassa, NJ in 2001 and renovated an old Tudor home. Kelly opened a studio in Asbury Park, but before long the family moved back to Idaho in 2004 to Teton Valley where they spent seven years. “It was beautiful,” she said, “but there was very little opportunity for me to pursue my career, so I enjoyed being a mom and skiing a lot.”
When the Wall Street crash hit Teton Valley by 2010 they were pretty wiped out financially. Kelly yearned to work again and be where her client base was back east. In addition, her daughter needed spinal surgery, which they wanted to have done at Shriners Hospital in Philadelphia. In 2011 the family moved to Lambertville and have called it home ever since. “I love this town,” she said.
It has been good to her so far. One day the set decorator from the TV show, Madam Secretary was shopping in the antique store below her studio. She wandered into Kelly’s studio and was so taken with her art, she bought nine of her paintings to be used on the set of the show.
Kelly divides her time between creating her own art, teaching painting and overseeing FingerSmears. Amazingly, she has even found the time to take singing lessons. She loves to sing. “I would have wanted to be a rock and roll star if I wasn’t an artist,” she said.
In addition, she created the Mighty Fingers Facing Change project. An offshoot of FingerSmears, Mighty Fingers uses art to empower adolescent girls around the globe. First they honor their individuality through guided self-portrait exercises and then collaborate on the ongoing global FingerSmears canvas entitled, “Abundance.” So far Mighty Fingers Facing Change has reached girls in Guatemala, Wyoming, Canada, California, Haiti, Barcelona and Uganda. In October Kelly will travel to India, taking the canvas with her and then continue to South America, Alaska, China, Russia, the Philippines and the Middle East until it is completed. The project relies on the sale of her paintings, which is generally how it is funded.
Recently Kelly returned from a month long trip to China where she was invited to participate in a collaborative art outreach. It was here that she took a leaky boat trip to the botanical gardens where she planned to paint. At one point she thought she’d have to swim, but luckily the boat held and no one was caught for side stepping the entrance fee.
In her blog she wrote: “I believe that the work I’ve done has offered some good to the world, and that I have not wasted my time here...I believe the world needs art today more than ever...”
Kelly Sullivan Fine Art & FingerSmears is at 13 N. Union Street, Lambertville and is managed by gallery director Majell Yerenburg who handles marketing and social media. You can also see Kelly’s art on the web at thebabbling brush.com and visit her blog there.
Michele Malinchak is a freelance writer and avid gardener from Quakertown, PA.