Declarations from a Trembling World
Kelly Moore has always considered himself an artist of the folk and outsider art traditions, and what he paints is something we need to see
Kelly Moore’s rich palette and assortment of materials make his paintings and object art like surrealist paintings soaked in water overnight to bring out the flavours and the texture.
This creative jacuzzi soak in imagination and visionary zeal make a Moore painting — or any of the thousands of objects he paints, lacquers, assembles — shine and blare with light, bold colours, and crisp exposition.
It’s a fun palette walk along a spectrum of oils, acrylics, dyes and textures through a dream world that Moore swears is real but that leaves the appreciative viewer thinking they are looking at the inner cave dwelling of a long forgotten world.
And the pastor of this cave-dwelling congregation seems not to have fled his congregants or disappeared from the world. Like the pastor in Herman Melville’s “Moby Dick,” he seems to have been waiting for just the right story to tell, at just the right time to tell it.
Despite their frantic disposition, Moore paintings are as vivid, clear and lucid declaratory statements of truth and vision as a William Blake poem. The narratives he constructs enlighten us to the zeal of life, and the mystery of it.
The painter’s subject matter ranges from dead cowboys; to folk heroes of the American West; to animals; spirit totems; anthropomorphised angels and spirits; to dreamworlds and metaphysical landscapes; to desert animals; to aboriginal frogs; to scenes of Americana; and even word art, displayed Blake-like in images of poems.
At first you think you are looking at eclectic roadside flea market arcana. You nearly are. Moore did a lot of his work at a flea market in New Mexico.
Moore spent 10 years in a desert flea market, selling his art to the far and wide, who would drive to the Tesuque Indian reservation, in a shed called “Dark Bird Palace” that he says was situated near a volcano.
“I [had] ran out of money completely, my house caught on fire and my car was bombed out by a homeless man,” he tells me in an email. “That’s when I went to the Tesuque Reservation flea market.”
“I was destined to be there. So many magical things happened to me there; no one would believe it if I told them.”
That flea market was closed down a few years ago, according to Moore.
“The world changed and people stopped going to the flea market (internet changed people),” says Moore, in a Twitter DM exchange.
“I’ve never been able to find a gallery, and I was out of money, so I set up at the flea in desperation…it became my home in a deep way...my deepest story is rooted at that location near the volcano.”
A Moore painting vibrates with this same display of honesty and matter of fact gumption.
Despite being a self-described outsider, he is familiar with classic painting and the traditions of European art. Some of it reminds one of folk art, but some of it can even resemble nods to famous expressionist and surrealist artists, like Marc Chagall.
Rich primary colours spread across the canvas or surface (which might be wood, or bark, or a paint can turned over; or even a mannequin head), often with thick slabs of oil paint and other found materials stuck to it in a collage or bricolage of symbolism.
“My time painting on the Tesuque Indian reservation at the flea market for ten years dictated I had to use,” he says.
His art objects — some are small, some are big — are hectic but holistic. The light comes from everywhere and shines one-dimensionally on the subject(s). It is declaratory.
“Its never occurred to me that what I'm painting isn't real. I believe it is real and don't have any doubts about it. I’m showing people something I know,” he says.
In some art we see a ghost coyote. A talking crow. A river boat of transcendentalist angels moving through a hazy murk and glow. While these are not things that a typical person would see as they make their way to the neighborhood 7-11, they are things Joseph Campbell might say are universal, or mythically heroic. If we don’t see them, we should. They are part of our shared story.
What Can Be Found In This Brave New World?
His latest series, “Punk Brushes” has received acclaim. It seems to be a reference to the punk ethos that is found in a lot of online art these days on OpenSea and SuperRare. They are painted-on paint brushes, lightboxed and sold as 1/1 NFT originals through the online platform.
Turning to online platforms to sell his art through NFT has helped Moore find a new niche. Ironically, though, Moore doesn’t put a lot of faith in the Internet as a place for artists to seek validation or sell their work.
His recent email to me speaks of that conflict. It reads almost like a poem.
“I am not so good with social media it feels very far from what
I perceive the best way for the world to work. I pull for purity in the world.
The internet feels very disingenuous to me. Im not good with
Saying things I don’t believe. I will never win the high school popularity contest lol
I believe small face to face outdoor markets are the best way for the world.”
Until then, we can admire the work of art that Moore seems to put out in a constant stream of creativity. He is prolific.
In a section of the email he calls “Rebirth,” Moore talks about his ethos and why he does what he does. It’s a final statement of the power behind his art and his work.
“You could say I was baptized at the flea market
Born again as a better iteration of who I am
Closer to the land and working in a small village
Where I met people and made art outside for 10 years
I did IOUs frequently and never got hung up on the price of my art
As my higher purpose has always to be of service to the world
Thru my art
You can find Kelly Moore’s NFT art on OpenSea.