On my day-to-day travels a camera is my most constant companion and I often stop to take pictures. Often it’s graffiti or a painted sign on the state of the union, I find it a form of folk art. It’s fleeting. It’s fascinating to me.
I am drawn to large parades and exuberant crowds, photographing the Women’s March on NY, NYC Dance Parade, and SantaCon in the years leading up to the pandemic.
During 2020-21 the world become much smaller. I began an interactive community project, Synergy, to keep connected with other creatives. Posing a suggestion, I would ask people to respond to the prompt. Inspired by mail art, this art was emailed and posted to this website created for the purpose, LonnaKellyStudio.com.
Collaborations and community have become a large focus. My postcard series 2016-present represents a mail-art project in which I ask people to take my designed postcard, modify it in any way, and return to me by mail.
My Liberty Series continues to grow with photos of found Statues of Liberty, and one’s I add to a location, ie: Erie Canal, brick yard, ocean beach.
2021 Art Reborn: 100 Mannequins is a project financed by the Daniel & Trudy Regan Foundation, with over 100 mannequins given to artists to modify.
My mannequin, Min, Our Mothers/Ourselves celebrates Mothers but also recognizes the complex relationship children/daughters have with their Mom’s and incorporates fiber, family and friends photographs and text. Backwards printing of quotes from family and friends forces the viewer to read, think about the content, and how communication in families is so easily misinterpreted. Recent attacks on women’s rights dictated that I address the fact that women, and so many others, in this country remain second class citizens.
2023
Story Tellers, Live for Art Gallery, Pawling NY
2022
Live for Art Gallery, Pawling NY, Group Show, July and January/February
#LKtree Initiated Collaborative Year Long Tree Project
Camera Obscura Installation, Pawling, NY
Mail Art Ukraine Pavillion, International Mail Art Project by Ruggero Maggi in collaboration with SACS and the Dynamic Museum of Mail Art in Quiliano, Italy
Traveling Camera Obscura development with the support of Arts Mid-Hudson and Pawling Concert Series
Postcard Project Glory to Ukraine
2021
Altered Art postcard collaboration with Pawling Library celebrating their 100th year
Live for Art Gallery, Pawling NY, Group Show
Art Reborn: 100 Mannequins, New City, NY
Merwinsville Hotel Show, Merwinsville, CT
2020
Art Room, A Gathering of Artists, Pawling Public Library
International Mail Art Project SYNERGY in the Days of COVID
Zoom presentations Mail Art Project
SYNERGY 2020 – community project in response to coronavirus pandemic
#womenonUSpaper$
Live for Art Gallery, Pawling NY, Group Show
2019
Mail Art Postcard Project
Camera Obscura Project, Pawling, NY
ArtMostNY Open Studio Tour, Dutchess County, NY
ArtEast Open Studio Tour, Dutchess County, NY
Hudson Valley Art Speak, Artist video interviews
Artist Out Loud, Akin Library, Pawling NY
When Darkness Falls, Night Explorations, Annmarie Sculpture Garden & Arts Center, Maryland
2018
Dutchess County Executive Artivist Award
Mail Art Postcard Project
Camera Obscura Installation
LACDA, small works Group Show. CA
Arts MidHudson Group Show, artist talk, Poughkeepsie, NY
Front Street Gallery Group Show, Patterson, NY
ArtEast Open Studio Tour, Pawling NY
Hudson Valley Art Speak, Artist video interviews
Bell Levine Art Center Group Show, Mahopac NY
2017
Liberty – Statue of Liberty Project (ongoing)
Mail Art Postcard Project
Group Show Maplebrook School Kentucky Derby, Amenia, NY
Group Show Howland Cultural Center, Beacon NY
Gallery 28, Pop up Gallery, Pawling, NY
ArtEast Open Studio Tour, Dutchess County, NY
Hudson Valley Art Speak, Artist video interviews
Dutchess County Executive Art in Public Places for ArtEast Open Studio Tour
2016
Where’s George Dollar Bill Project
Mail Art Postcard Project
Get This Show on The Road, Gallery 66, Cold Spring NY
Group Show, Gallery 66, Cold Spring NY
Chairity, Gallery 66, Cold Spring NY
ArtEast Open Studio Tour, Dutchess County, NY
Hudson Valley Art Speak, Artist video interviews
2015
School House Theater and Gallery, Juried exhibit, Katonah Museum Artist Association, Croton Falls, NY
By and About Women: Celebrating the female spirit, R Dixon Gallery, Seneca Falls, NY
ArtEast Open Studio Tour, Pawling NY
ArtEast Open Studio Tour Public Art Project, first time limited art installation in the village of Pawling, NY
Hudson Valley Art Speak, Artist video interviews
2014
Front Street Gallery, Patterson, NY
Great Swamp Art Show and Celebration, Pawling NY
Hudson Valley Art Speak, Artist video interviews
ArtEast Open Studio Tour, Dutchess County, NY
2013
Art in the Loft, Millbrook Winery, Millbrook, NY
Para Transit, What Would We do Withhout the Bus, We Need the Bus, Video production for public and para transit advocacy
Front Street Gallery, Patterson, NY
Hudson Valley Art Speak, Artist video interviews
ArtEast Open Studio Tour, Dutchess County, NY
2012
Art to the Point: Tri-State Juried Exhibition, Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, NY
Hudson Valley Art Speak, Artist video interviews
ArtEast Open Studio Tour, Dutchess County, NY
2011
ArtWorks, an Artists Salon, Front Street Gallery, Patterson , NY, group show
Art Along the Hudson, Paramount Center for the Arts, Peekskill, NY
Harlem Valley Artists Gallery, Webatuck, NY
Open Studio Group Show at the Wassaic Project, Wassaic, NY
ArtEast Open Studio Tour, Dutchess County, NY