|
|
www.kellytunstall.com
Asked about the volume of her art to-date, Tunstall says, “I estimate the total number, over six years, to be about one thousand major and minor works.”
Second only to Tunstall’s productivity is her consistency. Her subject matter consists almost entirely of female characters, with small animals and smart wardrobes playing supporting roles. Asked where the boys are, she points to the animals—and even some girls—as the stand-ins for the hairier sex.
“I started painting the girls when I was very small,” she says. “Everyone does, but I just never gave it up. I really started into it when I left for college at 18 . . . I have a little sister, and I missed her terribly. So I started painting the girls in pairs, in Siamese twin form, a rather drastic symbiotic relationship, but it helped . . . I celebrate my friends in good times, break them down into parts sometimes, and when they move away, I tend to paint a few twins.”
Though Tunstall gathers her girls into three stylistic periods: “Early” (1995-1998), “Ballerina” (1998-2002) and “Grace” (2002 to present), she says that certain elements have remained constant. She continues experiment with materials, color, and form, for example. Her work is always somewhat self-referential, she says, but she likes to think through her own experiences and then try to make them universal. At the same time, Tunstall leaves secret visual clues that create a conversation between her and her art.
“They are like ‘notes to self,’ she says. “I’ll incorporate a piece of clothing I'd like, a line from a song I have stuck in my head, a pattern from a favorite item of clothing, even a reminder to get milk! It's a big, vibrant diary.”
The bedroom, Tunstall’s second phase of the suite project, features two guardians that evoke Chinatown with golds, reds, dragons and fish. She has also “brought the outside in with a little cityscape on the wall.”
“In terms of the whole suite, it has really come together. There is a public room, a private room, and a bathroom: varying realms of privacy. I wanted to nod to that. With the salon room, it’s not that personal; it’s more a record of a city. And then the other one is more my personal journey. I tried to record it through different periods.”
“Getting to experience the hotel while painting the bedroom made it richer, because I was there and constantly asking, ‘What do I want to see on this wall?’ I was experiencing the room itself. Now it’s a whole piece, a cohesive whole.”
Kelly recently participated in a group show in Melbourne, Australia and is currently showing at Miami Art Lab in Florida and Future Primitive Sound in San Francisco. She will have a solo exhibition at Low Gallery in San Francisco in 2006.
|
