Local Artist Creates Art with Passion and Poise

by Abby Meaux Conques

For Kelly Russo, a local artist in many facets, there wasn't a time that she can recall when some type of artform didn’t serve a major role in her life. ”My meditative space since childhood has been drawing,“ she said as we sat for a cup of coffee.

Previously, I noticed a woman painting the huge storefront windows of the French Press restaurant in Downtown Lafayette. The artwork was beautiful and grand. I loved how she used the negative space of the imagery creating room for these large beautiful wintry birds. I felt as though it was a nod to a Cajun Christmas and that resonated with me. Upon approaching her I learned she was a sought-out local artist and we exchanged information. I looked at her other works on instagram and fell in love with her style and portrayal of bayou creatures and scapes with her interpretive use of color. I'm a sucker for those times that life gives you pieces that simply fall into place and you meet interesting people in interesting ways.

While having coffee, we talked about how supportive her family has been in her pursuit of a life where she creates art daily. “My parents always encouraged art as a creative outlet, and my Mom was always crafty,” she mentioned. She vividly remembers getting art supplies for every gifting occasion, and especially remembers receiving her first drafting board. “I’d enter all these different types of contests for children and young adults, and I’d end being a finalist in many of them; that’s when I started seeing what I could do as a gift...because it was someone telling you that you had these talents and they weren’t just your parents,“ she explained.

Kelly Russo's Window Painting Art at The French Press in Downtown Lafayette

When asked where her inspiration for creating art concerning the outdoors (birds, flowers, and other flora and fauna) originated from, she recalled specific experiences she had while walking in nature as a young teen. “I was raised Catholic and went on retreats in remote areas. They were always in beautiful natural environments. I felt intense respect and spirituality when experiencing and discovering nature - and it felt loving and familiar...I’d venture to say from sharing fishing and hunting trips with my Dad and working in the yard with my mom,” she explained.

After high school, Russo decided to lend her artistry to the major of Architecture. “Art and nature both played parts in architecture for me. I felt as though my concepts of design were made from the inside out, to bridge the gaps and break the edges and hard lines of structures...breaching them as elegantly and gently as possible,” she revealed. Russo’s love for the artistry of architecture can be found in the way she frames spaces and lets the walls fall away, having them serve as places for art installations. She delicately connects the divide between the exterior and the interior. Russo went on to receive her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Architecture. To date, she’s worked for various design firms and currently serves as an adjunct architecture instructor at LSU while running her own residential remodeling practice.

Russo’s grandmother was also a source of encouragement creatively in many ways, including in cooking and more specifically, the arts. They formed a special bond through their intertwined creativity. When Russo’s grandmother passed away, she returned to pencils and paint out of a sheer need to channel her intense grief. “That’s when the Geometric Flowers pieces came to fruition. It’s how I dealt with my grief. I tapped into painting, watercolor and ink, and dip pens,” she said. “Those mediums are very meditative for me because there’s these moments when you simply have to take a breath before making a line with your quill with a dip pen or watercolor paint stroke. They’re very delicate mediums, and force me to pause. Art is not only a physical act, but a meditative one.”

Russo grew with her healing process of creativity and followed her Geometric Flowers series with what she calls “Free Flowers,” moving from hard-lined flowers donned with a geometric shape in the background to more whimsical and free-flowing lines with watercolor daubs depicting fruit branches, irises and her familiar magnolias. Her series depicted “Birds” transpired from Free Flowers and led her to her current workings today. Sometime during all of her growth, she married artist and husband, James Van Way III, and is now in the thick of motherhood with their toddler, Ella Cricket.

She’s now beginning to emerge into the art exhibition scene and is participating in the Biedenharn Adam and Eve – The Garden and Beyond exhibit in Monroe opening March 12. You can also find her works in Lafayette’s The Big Easel (Saturday, March 7). You can follow her artistic journey and view her beautiful works on Instagram (@kelly_renee_russo_works) and the Kelly Reneé Russo Works page on Facebook.