52 FALL 2022 K KEENELAND.COM Spotlight On THE COMMON WEALTH OF KENTUCKYTHROUGH ART AND STORYTELLING THE COMMON WEALTH OF KENTUCKY PROJECT EXPLORES THE STATE’S DIVERSE PEOPLE AND THEIR COMMON CONNECTIONS By Vickie Mitchell / Photos by Arden Barnes BUILDING BRIDGES Artist Kelly Brewer honored her late mother by painting portraits of people from different walks of life.
KEENELAND.COM K FALL 2022 53 Master distiller Arlon Casey Jones Former Wildcat Kenny Walker Lexington Mayor Linda Gorton Trainer Brad Cox Student and Special Olympian Caroline Mason Chef Ouita Michel Keeneland ringman Cordell Anderson Olympic Gold medalist Lee Kiefer Keeneland president & CEO Shannon Arvin Stewart Home’s John Stewart DV8 Kitchen cook Connor Frey Appeals Court Judge Pamela Goodwine
54 FALL 2022 K KEENELAND.COM
In mid-2021, as a worldwide pandemic continued to upend lives, Lexington artist Kelly Brewer and her friends Jill Johnson and Beth Pride set out to tell the stories of 70 fellow Kentuckians. In a time marked by isolation and derision, their ambitious Common Wealth of Kentucky project uses visual art and the written and spoken word to illustrate that when we take the time to talk and listen to others, we can bridge divides and appreciate each other’s lives and experiences.
K elly Brewer is a suc cessful Lexington art ist, best known for her paintings of weath ered barns, lush pas tures, contemplative cattle, proudly plumed chickens, and handsome horses. As the work in her Lexington home studio attests, Kelly Brewer focused primarily on painting animals and landscapes before embarking on the Common Wealth of Kentucky project.
“I opened up the journal, and she had written at the bot tom of a page, ‘What are you doing with your privilege?’ ” said Brewer. “That just hit me across the face.”
Brewer hadn’t done much portrait work, and so paint ing people would also challenge her as an artist. The idea became an obsession. She would see people in the grocery store, on the street, at parties. “I’d think ‘I could paint them.’
Among her talents Jill Johnson brought the skill of interviewing subjects to the team.
Instead of the typical, day-by-day journal, this one was a hodgepodge of notes and quotes written this way and that.
In early spring she shared the idea with Beth Pride, who works with Brewer to market her art. “I love it!” Pride cried. Within seconds, Pride had coined a clever and fitting name — the Common Wealth — two words, she Beth Pride encouraged Brewer to pursue the Common Wealth project and added her expertise in marketing and social media to get it off the ground.
On January 23, 2021, the one-year anniversary of her mother’s death, Brewer’s father, Bill, gave her one of Jo’s journals. “I’d really been grieving her,” said Brewer. “Other than my husband, she was my best friend.”
56 FALL 2022 K KEENELAND.COM THE COMMON WEALTH OF KENTUCKY
Spotlight
‘‘ I HOPE EACHTHINKPEOPLEINSPIRESITTOABOUTOTHER.” — KELLY BREWER, OF THE COMMON WEALTH OF KENTUCKY PROJECT
“It was the way she lived her life,” said Brewer. To ensure those good works continued after Jo died, Brewer; her brother, Craig; and their father created the Jo B. Robertson Charitable Foundation. As she pondered the question from Jo’s journal, Brewer had an idea. Her privi lege, she felt, was to be an artist. Perhaps she could put her talent to work and paint portraits of people from different walks of life to illustrate Jo’s steadfast belief that, as Brew er said, “We’re all connected; we are all the same; and no one’s better than anyone else.” The portraits could be sold to benefit the foundation.
Like many, she had a terrible 2020. It started in Jan uary, when her mother, Jo Brent Robertson, died of breast cancer at age 79. Weeks later the world locked down as coronavirus began its march. Then, Brewer was literally knocked off her feet by knee surgery and an unexpectedly difficult recovery.
On
”
Thus came the impetus for the Common Wealth of Ken tuckyThroughoutproject. her life, Jo Robertson had helped others. She taught English at the Hope Center every week. “I can’t tell you how many men she helped get their GED,” said Brewer. Jo had also helped start an education program for girls in Kenya. But she did most of her good deeds so quietly that even her daughter didn’t know about them, a fact brought home after her mother’s death, as people shared stories of Jo’s many kindnesses, stories Kelly had never heard.
THE COMMON WEALTH OF KENTUCKY
PHOTOPRIDEBETH
On emphasized — of Kentucky. She popped open her laptop, created a spreadsheet, and started planning. Meanwhile, as Pride took her friend’s simmering idea to full boil, “I was having a low-key panic attack,” Brewer said.
Over time, the idea would become a multifaceted, multimedia project: an exhibition of 70 portraits of Kentuckians, recorded in terviews with the people Brewer painted, videos of the project in progress, social media posts, a blog, and a website. A silent auction of the portraits and sales of a companion coffee-table book would raise money for the foundation. And it would involve not only Pride, who had honed her mar keting, social media, and organizational skills during 18 years heading up admissions and marketing at The Lexington School, but Jill Johnson, who’d also worked in marketing before she seg ued to volunteerism, working dedicatedly with local organizations including Baby Health Services and Court Appointed Special Ad vocates (CASA). The three women had known one another for decades — Johnson and Brewer met in grade school — and all Brewer paints the portrait of Prestonsburg Mayor Les Stapleton at the overlook at Jenny Wiley State Park.
58 FALL 2022 K KEENELAND.COM
Spotlight
Left, Pride, Johnson, and Brewer get a look at the finished portraits in Brewer’s studio. Above, Brewer completed 70 portraits.
So there are artists, athletes, and an actor; front-line workers and farmers; doctors and lawyers; civic leaders and coal miners; and edu cators, entrepreneurs, and exercise instructors. Horsemen and bour bon makers also participated, along with people who often make headlines.
were married with children near the same age. Their families had spent much time together. Johnson and Pride had also known Jo Rob ertson and adored her. Like most other first-time endeavors, their project had a learning curve. Brewer’s initial panic attack wouldn’t be the last. But after fits and starts, they developed an effective process that allowed Brewer to focus on her painting as Johnson, an empathetic listener and a gifted conversationalist, asked the questions, and Pride took notes, recorded interviews, and shot video.
Each person was asked the same three questions: What is your sto ry? In what way are you connected to Kentucky? And how do you see yourself connecting with others? Conversations expanded from there.
60 FALL 2022 K KEENELAND.COM THE COMMON WEALTH OF KENTUCKY
Choosing people to paint happened organically, as Pride explains in the preface for the coffee-table book. “We had no strategy for picking participants. The only mandate was to cover a diverse population, eth nically and socioeconomically. The people covered at first were people we knew, and often they recommended others, so typical of a Southern state, there are only a few degrees that separate our 70 participants.”
Pride (left), Johnson (third from left), and Brewer (second from right), pose with Pedo Mann, right, at the Alliance Coal mine in Varney, Kentucky.
PROJECTKENTUCKYOFWEALTHCOMMONTHECOURTSEY
Spotlight On
Subjects include Lexington Mayor Linda Gorton, former first lady Jane Beshear, Keeneland ringman Cordell Anderson, and DV8 Kitchen cook Connor Frey. In keeping with the theme that everyone — no matter their circum stance — has value and a story to tell — each portrait and profile has equal weight. Portraits are the same size, painted from the same per spective. Each profile, written by Pride and included in the compan ion book, is the same length. Many sittings were in Brewer’s studio, above her garage, where a large bank of windows brings in natural light. Subjects sat in a wing back chair draped with a sheet as Kelly snapped photos of them, mea sured their head size, and then worked at her easel a few feet away. Three hours were allotted for each sitting and interview.
The LexArts Gallery is at 161 N. Mill St. Hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday, Tues day, Thursday, and Friday; 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Wednesday; noon-5 p.m. Saturdays; and closed Sundays.
Although the project’s aim was to raise money, it had become much more as it proved time and again, as Jo Robertson believed, that everyone has value and a story to share.
On Aug. 22, an exhibition (see sidebar) of the 70 portraits as well as many of Brewer’s Kentucky landscape paintings, opened to the public in the LexArts Gallery. In June, as they put finishing touches on the project, the three women imagined how it would feel to walk into the gallery and be surrounded by the friends they’d made over the past year. Given the long hours, the hard work, and the many conversations and connections they’d made, they knew it would be an emotional moment. They also re flected on how their work might affect others.
The 70 portraits of Kentuckians painted by artist Kelly Brewer are the focus of the multimedia Common Wealth of Kentucky Project exhibi tion at the LexArts Gallery Aug. 22 through Sept. 30. Each Kentuckian’s portrait will be accompanied by two minutes of a recorded interview with them, accessible by QR code. The exhibition will also feature videos shot as Brewer painted portraits in her studio and around the state. Copies of the 160-page hardcover exhibition book ($75) will be avail able. It includes each portrait and an 850-word profile of each participant, written by Beth Pride. A silent auction of the portraits and the sale of a number of Brewer’s Ken tucky scenic paintings will support the Jo B. Robertson Charitable Foundation, created to honor Kelly Brewer’s late mother and support the charitable causes she championed. For more information, visit kentucky.com.thecommonwealthof
62 FALL 2022 K KEENELAND.COM THE COMMON WEALTH OF KENTUCKY
On
For Brewer, the project helped her realize that by making assumptions, as we all do, we build walls. Listening to others, she learned, breaks down barriers.“I’venever thought of myself as a judgmental person, but it’s made me take a step back and consider other people’s perspective. I think it has soft ened me,” she said. “I hope it inspires people to think about each other.”
Pride and Johnson feel the same.
WEALTH
Memories often resurfaced. “Some would say, ‘I haven’t thought about this in 50 years, 30 years,’ ” Johnson said. “They came through their own realization of their life, the ups and downs and how it all unfolded to where they are now.”
Spotlight
Brewer’s subjects were often a little nervous at first, as the three women bustled around them, but their tensions were eased by Johnson, an engag ing conversationalist. She relished her role “to sit across from someone for three hours and look them in the eye and have them share with you.”
“In this crazy climate with radicalization of politics, people have de cided not to listen to each other,” said Pride. “This has taught me that WHERE TO SEE COMMON OF KENTUCKY EXHIBITION
As the project evolved, the trio took road trips for sittings in Eastern and Western Kentucky. “Three middle-aged women piled into a Sprint er van,” as Pride described it in her blog. Those trips were eye-opening, taking the women to areas of Kentucky they’d never explored and often connecting them with people whose ideas and beliefs were different from their own. They learned more about life in coal country from miner Pedo Mann; they danced with locals to Bluegrass music at Highway 23 Country Music Museum in Staffordsville. They took a precarious ride up a moun tain in a pickup truck driven by Prestonsburg Mayor Les Stapleton so his portrait could be painted in his city’s most scenic spot. As the mayor drove his giant truck over huge boulders, Johnson remembers thinking, “Well, here we go. Three girls roll off the mountain in their pursuit of a passion project.”Theyhad a lively night at Casey Jones Distillery near Hopkinsville, din ing on tacos, sipping moonshine the distillery makes, and visiting with master distiller Casey “AJ” Jones and Peg Jones, who own the place. AJ was so gracious and interesting that Brewer decided, despite the tight schedule, she would paint him and add his story to the project.
THE
KEENELAND.COM K FALL 2022 63 everyone has a perspective, and you have to listen and understand.”
And, of course too, they think of Jo Robertson, whose question in spired a project that focused on connection at a time when the world seemed to be coming apart. How would she feel about the project? Her mother would have been her usual supportive self, Brewer said.
“When you hear their story,” said Johnson, “you can’t help but feel a sense of connection, compassion, and understanding for where they’re coming from, no matter how differently you think or feel about others around you. I hope everyone walks out of there feeling more love, more understanding, and the desire to connect more with other people.”
KM Brewer acknowledges that the Common Wealth project has made her more understanding of other people’s perspectives.
“When Beth was making the videos, we said, ‘Oh, we don’t have very many views.’ And I said, ‘Well, if Mom had been here, she would’ve viewed it like 17,000 times.’ ” Her daughter knows Jo would be thrilled at what the women have accomplished, pulling Kentuckians a bit closer together, convincing themselves and others that what we have in common can outweigh what sets us apart. “She would’ve loved it,” Brewer said.
