ERIC KELLY III MUSEUM

Eric Kelly III is an Artist, historian, author, singer, and poet; he is the founder of North Carolina Artist Hall of Fame where he teaches the Art of Abstract Expressionism.  In his work you’ll explore how art satirists manipulate themes and also use parody as a form of expression in their content.  Eric Kelly III, one of the leading African America's expressionist artists in the last three decades, his work reflects on the connections between images and the bold lines, the linkages between art and humanity, and the understanding of society through abstract and expressionist art.   Born in Washington DC he graduated with a Visual Communications degree from the North Carolina Central University in 1982.  While some artist uses a serious tone to persuade their audiences to accept their perspective on various issues, some artist specifically uses humor to convey a serious message.  Eric uses abstract and expressions to convey his feeling of lines, shapes and the freedom of space to express his feelings.  He uses themes that are sometimes a parody or satire to depict his emotions in his artistic creations. 

 

Eric Kelly III quite frankly is art satirist who also uses parody in his art. He uses abstract and expressionism forms of art together as a direct visual persuasion to draw emotional conclusions form his audiences.  His parodies in his art are an imitation of an image that he sees with the idea of sometimes ridiculing the image or theme that he draws.  His work exploits the peculiarities of an image or the persons expressions—the propensity to use eyes that stares, over the top of emotions or facial expressions, the use of certain movements, or other elements of images in his themes. 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.  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.

 

 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. 

 

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. 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 

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“Unlike all the other artist, Eric is able to seize and render the passage of time, to stop it, almost to possess it in infinity.  I’d say that his work is the sculpting of Historical moments in time.”

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