THOMAS J KELLY

NUDES

2015
30 x 48

Nuts and Bolts presents many different mental images. There are lovers in the painting and a Jackson Pollock feel. The painting is about raw sex without emotion, without color, without love. The man is on top the woman on the bottom. Nuts and bolts present the dichotomy of images as well as represent the basic idea that this goes here and that goes there. The interesting part is that the painting seems to work.

2008
30 x 40

This picture combines a classical nude pose with the raw meat you would find in a grocery store. The viewer is forced to consciously view either the meat or the nude and at the same time contemplate the concepts of the nude as raw meat, women as a meat market or the enjoyment of both.

One of my first “nude with” series. My wife, Deb, hates this painting. But I get different reactions from women and men. The painting was displayed at a show in the lobby of the Fort Wayne Art Museum. At the opening a gruff short muscular female museum guard came up to me and said she had to locate me just to tell me how much she loved the painting. “one of her favorites in the whole museum.” Nice complement.

Nude with Foo Foo

2013
30 x 40

A Foo Foo is a pacifier or at least that is what I called it when my children used them. It is pacifying because it replicates the sucking satisfaction of a baby on its mother's breast. The binocular visual effect is enhanced by the dual nature of women as a sexual object as well as a nurturer. Also represents my current position in life trying to nurture the next generation to take over.... Or maybe I just want grandchildren.

Nude with Eggs and a Rooster

2014
24 x 30

A painting mostly about reproduction. Using the visual dichotomy of the eggs floating in timeless space along with the rooster and the nude the viewer is challenged to both think about what he is seeing as well as the duality of meanings in the subject matter. The pose of the nude, her expression and location of the rooster all add to the mental conflicts. The pose was taken from a drawing I found that I drew from a live model 20 years ago.

2011
24 x 30

Continuing a recent theme of combining a nude with a totally different object or thought, this painting takes a classical Marilyn Monroe pose and combines it with honey bees. The duality of thought is again represented and the viewer must determine the conscious connection. In this painting I used a "Pop Art" style for obvious reasons. I picked the pose based on an early childhood memory when I was shown the picture by an older boy in our neighborhood and ended up at the confessional where I was told that I was going to Hell because it was a Mortal sin. The viewer can deduct whatever they want but personally she looks pretty sweet to me. Of course there is always those stingers to watch out for.

Nudes with genus Castor

2016
30 x 40

My neighbor, an environmentalist, texted me in a bit of excitement that we had beavers in our pond so I walked down to take a look.. I didn’t see any beavers but found 6 big beautiful trees where the beavers had chewed off the bark. They were going to die. Later expressing my concern to my neighbor he laughed at me and said they were good for the environment. But what about the trees I asked. I guess good depends on how you are looking at it.

I went home and started another painting in the “nude with series”. Using visual, mental and emotional dichotomies to capture the fact that good and bad are dependent upon the nature of the observer.

Nude with Chameleons

2012
30 x 40

This painting is a continuation of the "Nude with" series. This is the first nude with a full male figure. The painting combines a male nude with chameleons. Wikipedia describes a chameleon as varying greatly in size and body structure. Many have head or facial ornamentation, such as nasal protrusions, or horn-like projections. Chameleons have very long tongues (sometimes longer than their own body length) which they are capable of rapidly extending out of the mouth. Some chameleon species are able to change their skin colors. The primary purpose of color change in chameleons is social signaling. The Chameleons also have a long tail that is typically rolled up but often times can be seen fully extended.