© Martha Kelly Art www.marthakellyart.com
Photo by Charles Barnes
L: One of Kelly’s popular prints of Memphis landmarks. R: Kelly sketching one of her favorite muses: a tree in Tower Grove Park in St. Louis.
I remember the moment the paint swirled in front of me on the page … It was magic, and I was hooked. which originates from a quote by John Constable (17761837), an English Romantic artist who painted landscapes of the village in which he grew up. Constable is Kelly’s art hero. “He said something like: ‘Still I should paint my own places best; painting is with me but another word for feeling,’ ” Kelly quoted. “Dixon was my career moment,” she said. “To be recognized in Memphis with a museum show gives huge legitimacy and recognition to what I’m doing.” Much of Kelly’s art is centered on Memphis and its landscapes. “I love this place. It has such tangible beauty for me,” she explained. “It’s got these beautiful spreading oak trees, we’ve got rolling farm land, and we’ve got big skies. I want to give people here a lens to see the beauty around them.” Kelly recalled Hutchison teachers Pat Newberry and Bill Caldwell fondly. “They were amazing teachers and gave us the love of learning,” she said. As an artist, Kelly didn’t always feel like she fit in. “I was raised on ballads and opera. My family was culturally way out of the mainstream.” So she discerned, early on, that she couldn’t fake it and decided that she was going to do what made her happy. She said she had a crew of friends at Hutchison and found joy in the theatre department, working on sets, props, and stage management. 24 | Hutchison
She remembered when she realized her passion for art. She was 14 and taking a summer class on water media at the Memphis College of Art. “I remember the moment the paint swirled in front of me on the page in a way that was better than what I had hoped for. It was magic, and I was hooked.” Her primary media early in her career was large oil landscapes. She stayed busy for years with gallery shows in the city and around the Southeast. Then she decided she was ready for something new. She audited a class in basic printmaking, and a whole new world opened up to her. But there was a steep learning curve. To make prints, she had to learn to carve into linoleum backwards. “Anything you cut away is white, and anything you leave the ink sticks to,” Kelly said. The more she practiced, though, the more she realized that she wanted to focus on printmaking. It just so happened that her interest in printmaking coincided with the 2008 recession. “Big oil paintings are just not what people need during a recession. People realized they could buy prints at $75 for a relative for Christmas.” It was a matter of the right place at the right time, because as Kelly stressed, “You have to be authentic. I have to create the things I am seeing in my head. I can’t force it and think, ‘Oh, this would be a lucrative market. I’m going