Artist Statement & Explanation of the Body of Work Since the early 1970s, my work has evolved into the creation of historical drawing and painting based on portraits of historical moments in time. In 1980’s I began creating abstract and expressionist pieces on wood, canvas and cloth by hand. Abstract and Expression has now become a very prominent feature in my work and I continue to use deep bold lines that I used in early 1970’s. In my work, I deconstruct the American expression, its history, its ordinary lines, and its bonders that are part of our every day culture. My work addresses space assignment, the fragility of line dynamics, space relations to subject matter and the underlying threads of form and shape that is expected. Often times these themes are combined into art that feature strong facial expressions and objects. The black line establishes a dynamic surreal quality, suggests notions of excitement and freedom, and formally unifies the objects in each image; the lines provide clues to content and interpretation.
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The aim of this pastel project is to paint expressionistic portraits in an abstract style, and with non-realistic colors and shapes. I set out to paint portraits that convey personality, imagination and emotion through the use of paints and pastels. I picked up my first pencil when I was 4. That’s when my passion for art began. I immediately fell in love with all the details that go into creating a portrait: composition, lighting, contrast between my subjects and the background. Portraiture has always been my specialty, especially historical moments and personalities. It is truly a pleasure to capture the bond between bold lines, the love between colors and shapes, and the excitement of expression.
My images are fundamentally about form and revealing the visual eloquence that I see in all things. This eloquence is often expressed in the expressions and abstractions of the object. For this reason I have taken the name abstract expressionist because it characterizes my work so perfectly – taking the emotion to represent the whole, finding the spiritual connection through forms and objects.
Forms manifest in the resonance of a curve, the rhythm of a pattern, the dichotomy of light and shadow. They abound everywhere in abstract and expression: the boldness of the line, the overlap of color chasing the shape, the symmetry of a tranquil thought. We emulate them in everyday living: the arch of an eye brow, the movement of sternness. These innate forms, expressions from the larger world, connect with us at a basic level and help us to organize and understand our world. I have explored and continue to explore this innate art form across a variety of subjects and in many different processes. The work you will see in this series “Anthology of an artist” spans thirty years of drawings and paintings during my years of exploring the mystery of art and design and the exploration of my impressions and expressions of how I interpret my feelings and emotions as I create art in America. This is the a show of completion of time served in the creation of my expressions to the world of how I see the ever changing dimensions of lines, color and space.
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These images are a part of a life long show Entitled, “Eric Kelly III Anthology” at the Eric Kelly III Gallery. The show runs from December to December every year. The show consisted of one hundred four pastel paintings and several ILLUSTRATIONS. My paintings are about looking at the expressions of a people places and things. I started this current pieces paintings in 1970 and I thought to myself that I am at a point in my life of letting go of space and time and entering a world of dynamic lines and bold images with borderless bounders. This is a never ending show of new pieces covering my life and times
These art pieces create inner expressions of a my art while each subject attempts to change my art history. Every time I pick up a paintbrush or a pastel, I am bombarded with nostalgia of abstract emotions and expressions that are hidden deep within the thoughts of how I feel about images in frozen moments of their time.
ART
To create my paintings I mix realism, expressionism and abstract art in a combined form using colors to give my art a sense of vibrancy and movement. Some of my pastels have more apparent strokes than others, which I really enjoy to show a sort of texture of surface of an object. I choose to use large-scale paintings to overwhelm an audience just as an expression overwhelms a person when emotion takes over. The approach I took for the first several paintings was that I painted the subject in random thought sequences and placed them in an order that followed the president’s race. I would draw certain likeness of portraits and place an overriding theme so that there was balance throughout my show and composition. My work is inspired by life its’ ever changing moments, growth and the imagination of inner thoughts. I create large-scale paintings with imagery that overwhelms the audiences to the point of the exhaustion. Many of my paintings deal with expression and abstract emotions and they give the viewer much to think about.
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This I enjoy, I want my audience to think beyond my imagery and imagine the image that is crop with my mats. The mats themselves are a part of my art as they represent the borders of a snapshot that has just been taken by a camera. My paintings are about history, pride, gratefulness and ultimately happiness. It is evident that these paintings speak volumes about who I am. When my artwork is viewed, I would like to give the viewer a sense of created energy. I would like them to investigate, explore, struggle with, and enjoy my creation. From these paintings I want my audience to appreciate and capture the joy of their inner emotions while viewing the inner thought of the paintings.
Every line or shape does not need to represent some specific thing. Instead, the line or shape is merely something that belongs to a greater cause, something that enhances or disrupts the end result of my expression. These forms I discover through drawing and painting abstract and expression of the human drama. “My passion is the exploration of abstract and expressionism techniques to combine them, which have led to vast amounts of knowledge and continue to direct me towards my art solutions.” Eric Kelly III
The Purpose of Thought
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The American President
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Well, Well, Well
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The First Order
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That Winning Feeling
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Hope Again
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And We Will
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What And I
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Wisdom To Compete
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Thank You
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Inside Out
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The Question Is
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The Red Phone
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To You
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Rise Above
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Thinking of Now
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Why Wonder
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A Dream Realized
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Run for President
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Commander And Chief
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The Plan Is
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America the Beautiful
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We Have The Right
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Change Agent
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Basketball
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The Will of People
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I Believe
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Salute
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We Will
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Wonderful
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Imagination
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The Journey
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Cry for America
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We Will Be
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You Can Do Anything
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The Fan
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The Noble Peace Prize
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On This Day
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I Pledge
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Bright Lights
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Yes
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Anthology of the Body of Work 1970 - 2013 THANKS YOU LIFE “Art Anthology” is a book of Art expressions I have created over four decades. The works are to inspire those who look to create art as a part of their destiny. Acknowledgements I want to thank my God, my lord and savior for allowing me to be able to express in lines and color these expressions, thoughts and inspirational art pieces and to live long enough to create this collection of thoughts and feelings! I also would like to thank my lord for giving the expression of art to draw and to create something from nothing. I would like to thank my grandmother, Lovella Kelley, for giving me the love to believe I can do anything, taking the time to inspire me to dream big, to think big and to follow through with whatever I want to do. To thank her for raising me and molding me into a man! To my mother Frances Cagle who without the honesty of what life is about and the wisdom of how things work, she has given me sight to live my live with the ideas of everyone’s voice matters. I would like to thank my mother, for inspiring me to press the envelope of chance to believe that I could write a book. Thanks Mom I want to thank Jim Fields who stopped me one day and showed me the art of communicating and expressing my thoughts on TV.
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Giving me the opportunity to test my strength and resolve and for being a father to my growth and help me understand how to become a man. I want to thank My Art teacher Sandra Dowd, English Teacher and Black History teacher Mrs. Lawson, Mrs. Cousins, for without them, their friendship and thoughtfulness I never would have drawn the first piece of art and discovered that I could draw and express my self my feeling through art. With out them on the day in high school in the teachers lounge when they said if I don’t draw they would not pass me even if I made As in there classes!
I would like to thank my daughter Rasheda “ReRe” Barnes for listening to my every word, taking them with unwavering movement. Believing in my sound directions and following through to the highest level of completion. Thanks for being the best and always accepting grand is challenges and for being relentless to all of her goals. There has never been a prouder moment that when she listens and response to lessons learned over our time.
I want to thank my son who draws and creates everyday. He truly is the greatest rapper of all time, another great achievement in my I would like to thank my late sister, life my son who continues to Dot, Bernadine Williams, for no followed his dream to pursue a matter what I ever started she great career in music and has done would always find the great side of a wonderful job in creating his it, the funny the good and the rapping style. Son you are the best wonderful part. and I wish you success in all you do. I would like to thank my sister And thanks for the basketball song Easter Cheryl Williams, who always that you wrote about me, The says to me I’m a great brother Notorious Machine Gun Kelly! every day and believes in my joys and successes. To all who have played a part in my I would like to thank my sister Lisa life experiences, who have help me Williams, for always believing that I to create ART and live through this can do everything that I put my process, I want to thank you. mine too and how she supports me To each one who buys this book by telling the world. She is a true and take the time to read it, thank jewel to the human sprit. you from the depths of my heart. I would like to thank lifelong friends I would like to thank my sister especially Sam Jackson, Percy Freda Reddish for always listening Rabbit Love Brinkley, Daryl to my ever words with kindness Anderson, Ant White, Madame D, and compassion. I would like to Larry Hall, Sam Chambers, Gerard thank my brother Al Cagle, for Stone, Ken Beckford and James without his wit and funny Stephens III. statements and jokes, I would be Eric Kelly III just the big brother. Thanks little brother you are the best.