Anthony D. Kelly

freeformtrouble.com

A freelance illustrator, writer and visual arts practitioner, artist Anthony D Kelly, bases his practice in Castlebar, County Mayo located on Irelands West Coast. Not restricted to creating art, Anthony has extensive experience as a Gallery Administrator, Curator and Project Facilitator from his time at Basement Project Space an artist-led initiative which was based in Cork City, Ireland. Currently training in Humanistic and Integrative Psychotherapy, he uses art as an engagement tool, focussing on social, political and global development issues. We had a conversation with Anthony where he touched on various topics ranging from his current project ‘Notional Geographic’, our unhealthy relationship with anxiety and environmental conservation.

Is it true that you are training to be a Psychotherapist? Could you tell us a bit more about that?

Yes, for sure. I am currently training to practice as a Humanistic and Integrative Psychotherapist. It is tough training and emotionally intensive, but the learning is fantastic. It is client centred, meaning that we consider the client the expert in their own lives, and they lead the process. We take elements from many different techniques and schools, including Gestalt, Art Therapy, Process Oriented Psychotherapy and Psychosynthesis, we are really learning to be there with someone through any of life’s tribulations.

On a personal level, I feel that it has helped me really grow to understand myself a lot better and my art practice has definitely benefited from that.

Could you tell us a bit more about your current project ‘Notional Geographic’?

The Notional Geographic Project has been gestating for quite a while now; there have been intermittent eruptions of sketches and fragments of stories coming to mind. I have bound several basic copies so far, but nothing I would deem a finished product just yet.

The idea is to create transient journals of short stories, poetry and illustration; I will bind them and make small editions before dispatching them to friends in the four corners of the globe. These copies are to be left behind in coffee shops, on buses, passed on amongst their own friends, and generally lost where they will be found. There is a note contained in the introduction asking that once it becomes an object that is no longer used, to please set it free again by donating it or intentionally losing it somewhere new.

All Dried Up, Digital Collage, H:15’’ X W:12.5’’, 2017

With this project I am challenging myself to write several short fiction pieces, this is a new practice and with that comes for me both the feeling of adventure and a sense of intimidation that is to be overcome. I will push on and get there, and I feel that in the learning my wider practice as an artist will be deepened. I have also always enjoyed how things which are unique stick out from the background, like a treasure; and with this project, I want to have a little bit of fun seeding some of that out into the world. Some will find permanent homes, but hopefully, other copies will manage to travel about a little bit.

How important is the transition between interpretation and expression of an emotion or expression in art for you?

Rather than a transition, I feel there is a dance between our experiencing, interpretation and expression of things. When we encounter something that touches us deeply, whether that’s visual art, poetry, music, film, literature, a well-written video game or a valued relationship, a process of weaving occurs. There is a sort of invisible alchemical interplay between ourselves and the other in which we are changed.

This process is very important in art and in life as it extends our personal experiences beyond our everyday frames of reference, challenging us to grow and form new understandings and perspectives. I feel that this is a powerful part of art’s paradoxical facility to affirm our nature as separate individuals, while reminding us of our deep human commonality.

There’s no denying that we live in an age of perpetual anxiety, always connected, always rushing. How do you cope with this?

Ha Ha Ha, you can say that again. My phone goes on flight mode for long periods, and often, that is for sure. I do a lot of my work on a computer, so I am considering getting one of those apps that will limit my social media access to a particular window of time in every day. I find social media useful in keeping in contact with colleagues and friends, getting work seen and even finding opportunities, but these platforms are engineered to play on our brains dopamine reward centres and keep us hooked, perpetually, uselessly scrolling away our time. It’s certainly a technique that works on me.

Although it is not always possible, I try to eke out at least one day in every week when I don’t have any other commitments, so that I can wake up late, drink tea, exercise, listen to music and spend some valuable ‘doing nothing in particular time’ with myself. Meditation has also been an important practice for me in learning how to catch when I am distracted and to bring my focus back to the task at hand, as well as learning how to let go of things when they are unhelpful or unhealthy. It gets tough out there, be kind to yourself.

What is your advice to artists who might be struggling with the pressures to create?

When we are moving too quickly smaller tasks can seem to kind of amalgamate into one big unassailable job, this can cause overwhelm and scupper us before we start. While it might sound counterintuitive at first, step back, slow down. Put on some good music, assess what you need to do, whether that is writing a proposal, research exhibition opportunities or make some work, and then while being reasonable with yourself about what can be done, prioritise.

Mono-task when you can, I know that it can be difficult these days with so many things engineered to distract us. I find that the more I can allow to myself to focus in and get lost in making work, the more I can follow my own intuitive process to completion, then the deeper and more satisfying creating becomes.

To overcome procrastination, commit to doing even a small amount of work, even if at first if this means setting a timer for twenty minutes to get you over the starting line. Creativity begets more creativity, and once you enter a state of flow, the work will just come (Usually). If you are still feeling stuck, feed your mind by checking out the work of others, reading on a new topic, listening to a new podcast or whatever else you do for inspiration. The broader your experiences, the deeper the well you will have to draw on.

Daydream and then pay attention to what happens. When the mind is not focusing on the outside world or engaged in task-oriented thinking, the brain instead switches its activity to a suite of regions known as the Default Mode Network (DMN). When we are engaged in this mode of processing instead of focusing on outside tasks, the mind joins loosely related dots, dots that we had not previously considered to be dots and that thing over there that’s not a dot, but let’s get it in the mix anyway. In this way we generate new perspectives, contexts, narratives and meanings, finding ourselves suddenly struck by organically emerging creative moments. Save them for later.

Forget perfection . . . It’s a trap!

Environmental conservation is undeniably important and yet not enough is done about it, what are your thoughts on that?

Small initiatives and grassroots movements have certainly been a really good start, but we need to see more governments and corporations get on board with fossil fuel divestment and incentivising renewable energy research and infrastructure. The Paris Agreement was a great step forward, but I think we are going to need some big structural changes and more quickly, while we still have some chance of effecting what environmental changes do come. There is a powerful old guard of vested interests clinging to profits and influence, over the longevity of our Earth.

Planned obsolescence in manufacturing, the single-use plastics drowning the seas, dire air pollution, wholesale deforestation, fossil fuels, strip mining and our whole paradigm of infinite economic expansion needs to be looked at. To some that might sound like a clarion call for some idealistic utopian future, but the truth is our constant pursuit of economic expansion is clearly not making us any happier; if we keep overburdening the earth there will be hell to pay, and quite frankly we are already seeing the beginnings of it.

Could you tell us a bit about Castlebar, the town you live in?

My hometown, Castlebar in County Mayo, Ireland is nestled inland just a few miles from Clew Bay on the stark Atlantic coastline. There is so much history here, etched into the landscape, with the ruins of Castles, Old Linen Mills, and ancient Crannógs (fortifications built on artificial islands) dotted about the nearby hills and lakes. The air here is fresh, and the golden autumnal light has a particularly magical quality to it. In this part of the world, you are never too far away from some sight of great natural beauty; it is an inspiring place. Of course, the craic agus ceol is never too far away either. END

A Negative Loop, Digital Collage, H:15’’ X W:12.5’’, 2018