You’ll often hear artists talk about a kind of creative momentum that can build up during periods of inactivity, only to burst to life all at once, unleashing a flood of new works and propelling them to new heights in their art, in their minds, and even in their communities.
That’s certainly all been the case for Norman-based artist and painter Lauren Kelly, who spent 2024 garnering awards, speaking on artist panels, and both showing and selling her works across Oklahoma and even as far away as Santa Fe, all after only reconnecting with her artistic side over the past four years.
Much of that is down to her striking visual style, often marrying the surrealist, Earth Mother figures of Frida Kahlo with the dense coloration and complex decoration of Gustav Klimt, but she also imbues her work with the unmistakable spirit and aesthetics of her own Potawatomi heritage, another part of herself that she says she’s only recently begun to develop alongside her creative energies.
Lauren Kelly: I feel like it's all more connected than I even could have anticipated it being, yeah.
I feel it's really connected, because there are a lot of things even through like, you know, learning and practicing our traditions and practicing things that come naturally to me, the more that I'm connecting with really actively practicing my culture, I'm seeing native motif and things coming through a lot more in my work.
But it's not something that I'm intentionally pushing or intentionally stopping.
Brett Fieldcamp: That approach of letting her art and ideas flow freely, she says, is what helps to keep her grounded and helps her to focus and explore her thoughts and influences more easily, an outlet that she realized was actually a vital need in her life following a particularly challenging period just a few years ago.
She speaks openly and candidly about a hospital stay, during which she reconnected with a love of drawing and artistry that she had left lying dormant for too long.
Lauren Kelly: I dropped it for several years entirely, just because life was happening.
And so then I really came back to it as an adult in my mid 20s, like following a huge mental health crisis fallout, where I was like, “ah, I guess art is actually not optional for my well being.”
So when I came out of that, I knew that art needed to be a priority, so I started drawing again, and then I realized, like, I think I might be falling back in love with my art that I haven't touched in way too long.
Brett Fieldcamp: On the other side of that difficult time, Kelly began to develop her style and her portfolio more deeply, but also to develop the tools that would help her to forge a sustainable path for herself in the arts, tools drawn from her prior professional experience in areas like car sales and data entry and analysis.
Now she’s working to make those same aids available and accessible to any other artists with an upcoming book and a selection of online digital tools.
Lauren Kelly: I've had it on my heart for a while to write and just brain dump everything that I've racked up and shared. I do have a bunch of knowledge that could do somebody some good, and hopefully would maybe make their journey a little bit less long and winding than mine.
So I'm dumping that all into a book called “From Canvas to Career,” and that is due to come out in sometime in the spring.
But along with that, what I wanted to do was build out some actual tools and things that could be used by artists. And so I've dropped two of those digital tools already on my website. But yeah, I'm looking at putting together a whole suite of tools that currently includes an artist bookkeeping tool, an artist archiving and pricing suggestion tool, which hopefully will help artists stop under pricing their darn selves.
Brett Fieldcamp: For Kelly, that’s a step toward helping other artists to engage more deeply and more confidently in their work and to better understand the mental and emotional importance of creativity, a lesson that she’s recently kept particularly close to heart through a Potawatomi teaching about the beaver.
Lauren Kelly: So we have this story, this Potawatomi story, referring to creative gifts, and how using our gifts is not optional. It's not hubris to use your gifts, like you actually need to for your well being and the well being of your community.
Because one thing about the beaver is he has these teeth that can chop through just about anything, but if he doesn't use them, those teeth will continue to grow until they pierce his own skull. The very thing that is such a massive creative gift to the beaver will also kill him if he doesn't use it.
So I have kind of leaned into that teaching in structuring my time making art as a wellness practice.
Brett Fieldcamp: You can check out Kelley’s works, writings, and digital artist assistance tools at laurenkelly.art, and as always, you can find transcripts of this show and others at KGOU.org.
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