Today we’d like to introduce you to Martha Kelly.
Hi Martha, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I fell in love with art as a young teen in Memphis College of Art summer classes. I knew immediately that I wanted to be an art major in college and then an artist if I could swing it. I audited MCA summer classes to prepare for college-level art and came home with an art and religion degree. With those dubious qualifications, I got a non-profit job for several years in my 20s at the Alliance for the Blind and Visually Impaired. By the time it folded, I was ready to try being a full-time artist and have been lucky enough to do just that.
I worked my way first into galleries around the Southeast. After the recession of 2008 closed all the ones I was represented by, social media had begun to offer a “direct to the people” alternative for musicians, artists, and other creatives. I have a public show each year at various venues and also do home shows, illustrations, and other bits and pieces to pull together a career.
Dixon Gallery and Gardens offered me a solo exhibition in 2015, which was a turning point for my career. It gave me greater visibility, museum quality heft, and a beautiful experience to celebrate. Soon after I was offered (after doing some illustration for the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. over the years) the opportunity to illustrate their Book of Common Worship, which is in use nationally. I have since done my first solo book, P is for Possum, and have a graphic essay coming out in the summer edition of Oxford American.
Last year was my second museum exhibition (after visiting, writing thank you notes, and sending the curator to work for a year or so) at the Walter Anderson Museum of Art, another favorite museum and stand-out career moment. I’ve always thought of myself as a regional artist, not least because my landscapes are so rooted in Memphis and the rolling countryside around us.
It takes perseverance to branch out of shows in your hometown where people know you and make relationships outside that space, but both my career and my life have been enriched by cultivating new friendships and connections. My next show will be next summer at Rowan Oak in Oxford, Mississippi. I’ve been visiting and sketching the trees there (which are as eccentric as Faulkner himself) for over a year, and they’re going to host a show of my block prints of Faulkner’s trees right there in his house.
It means a lot to have the next beautiful thing to work towards. Every morning, I get up thinking about the art I want to make, and I have been so lucky to get to make that art as a career.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I don’t know that it’s ever a smooth road to build a small business, but I’ve been luckier than most. Inheriting my grandparents’ home gave me a stable base to work out of. I didn’t sell a single painting for two years following that 2008 crash. You can argue that people always need art, but they don’t necessarily need art RIGHT NOW when things are tight.
I had just that spring audited a printmaking course at MCA to challenge myself and try something new. The timing could not have been more perfect, because even though people stopped buying large paintings, they could still afford a block print for a present or to spruce up their homes in a smaller way. I had to learn how to manage my sales, do my marketing, and get my work out in public without the help of galleries.
In the end, no one believes in your work as much as you do, so I’ve done better in charge of my career than I did relying on galleries to sell for me. But it takes time to get the word out, build up your email list, and let people know you’re there. I did a lot of small shows for visibility early on and have gradually learned the ones that are most worth the time and effort.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I am a printmaker, painter, and illustrator. I began in pastels and then oils, but these days I feel that the linoleum block prints are the most eye-catching and unusual works that I make. Almost all of my work starts in the world with a sketchbook, catching in ink, pencil, and watercolor the things I see in front of me. When I have a sketch I like, I’ll sit with it for a while and then begin the slow process of converting it into a print.
That process involves drawing it to the correct size, tracing the drawing, and transferring a mirror image to the block with carbon paper. I then cut away everything that will be white, and what I leave, the ink will stick to when I roll it on. If I want multiple colors, I either roll several colors onto one block, blending the ink with the rollers, or I carve several blocks and print in layers, one block per color. It’s painstaking, slightly compulsive work that pleases my OCD. When I get tired of being that measured, I take my sketchbook out in the world and play some more, coming home with several fast sketches in one morning. I love flowing between immediate gratification and the slow craft of making something beautiful.
Because of the technical requirements and slower pace, there are many fewer printmakers than painters out there. I’ve had to learn the mechanical requirements of the presses as well as mastering the artistic qualities of the medium. My grandmother’s formal dining room now houses three printing presses, including one 1909 treadle-operated one. I’ve loved being able to learn new things and expand into different media without straying from my overall vocation of art.
Do you have recommendations for books, apps, blogs, etc?
Without Reservations by Alice Steinbach was a formative book to help me to step bravely out into the world and follow my curiosity as a woman alone in my 30s. For creative inspiration, Ann Patchett’s book of essays This is the Story of a Happy Marriage is always the book I return to most.
John Constable is the artist whose work and habits have both inspired my own, and Memoirs of John Constable by C.R. Leslie was written by a friend of his and relies heavily on quotes from Constable’s letters. I have also found the #AmWriting podcast to be invaluable for learning to manage my own small business as a creative and to balance my vocation and personal life.
Pricing:
- Two books of mine are available at Burkes Books and Novels, both at $20 each. Prints are variable and available on my website.
Contact Info:
- Website:www.marthakellyart.com
- Instagram: @marthakellyart
- Facebook: Martha Kelly Art
Image Credits
Greg Campbell and FIX Magazine
