JANELLE MARIE
Playful sparkle and translucent bubbles mark the flashy mixed media works of Janelle Kelley. Cupcakes and designer monograms float across Kelley’s works of teenaged reverie. Like the insides of your punk rock high school locker, Kelley puts a high-art spin on a timeless tradition. Gwen Stefani, Betty Page, and David Bowie decorate these pop art landscapes full of glitz and gloss. Her process begins with acrylics. From there, she adds photos, cutouts, and found objects like vintage jewelry. In Gwen’s Sweet Escape the No Doubt singer gazes skyward, cheeks framed by her long red acrylics, cherubic under a soft glow, while the letters L-A-M-B march across the top left corner, eponymous in their branding. Encapsulated in the shrine are angel figurines and the iconic Louis Vuitton LV’s and Chanel double-C’s. LED lights scroll the tendrils of a cascading ribbon that dances along her crown. Kelley is greatly influenced by music and high fashion, and her pieces reflect these affinities while blaring pop iconography from celebrity to flamingo–many of her pieces feature wildlife–and beyond.
Kelley lives and works in St. Petersburg, Florida.
JANELLE MARIE KELLEY ON
I take the not so pretty aspects of life and turn them into a thing of beauty. While I speak of greed, opulence, violence, drugs, and dissolution, I invite the viewer to get lost in the details and spot the diamonds in a sea of rocks. As such, my work is a collage of striking visuals: glamorous provocative images of pop culture icons alongside found objects, such as vintage jewelry, shells, glass, and LED lights, on acrylic-painted canvas. There are no limits to the materials I can use, as long as they can take a certain degree of heat. Multiple layers and media allow me to express different perceptions and ideas as well as add dimension to a piece. At this time of uncertainty, I strive to evoke emotion and allow people’s minds to float into a realm of subconscious beauty and mystique.
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