Timeoff - April 11-20, 2003

Painted Ovations - Music marries art in a benefit event for the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra

By Susan Van Dongen

If Vincent Van Gogh were alive today he might want to strangle fellow artist Thomas Kelly. He certainly would be envious of Mr. Kelly's overnight success. Even with a brother who was a well-known gallery owner and art dealer, Van Gogh's work didn't sell during his lifetime. To make matters worse, his own mother rejected the gift paintings he sent her.

Mr. Kelly's experience has been much happier. A production supervisor by day at KNF Neuberger, a vacuum pump company in Trenton, Mr. Kelly picked up the paintbrush little more than 10 years ago. Since then, his work has been in more than a dozen exhibits, including three solo shows. In addition, Marriott International commissioned him to create two large-scale works for Trenton Marriott at Lafayette Yard. Plus, he's sold dozens of paintings.

His latest endeavor is "Beginning of the Standing Ovation" and "The Piano Lesson," paintings done on the body of a violin, part of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra's Art Strings 2003. The NJSO selected 10 artists to create original paintings, mixed media and other works on the bodies of donated violins, to be displayed in the lobbies of venues where the orchestra is playing through May. Persons can view the instruments and, if they're interested in acquiring one, they can buy raffle tickets and hope for the best when the drawing is held at NJSO's offices in Newark June 28. All money raised will benefit the NJSO's Education Programs.

The artist hail from Central and North Jersey, as well as Manhattan and Cuba. This year, the NJSO is pleased to welcome world-renowned artist, sculptor, philanthropist and Grounds for Sculpture founder J. Seward Johnson Jr., who contributed "The Fiddle Player" to the program. On May 18, the one-of-a-kind violins will be on view at Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton.

Mr. Kelly, 40, actually created two acrylic paintings for Art Strings, one for each side of the instrument. The front features a violinist bowing to an appreciative audience and the back shows an elegantly dressed woman lounging on a powder blue sofa as a man plays a grand piano.

"At the opening, one woman told me after she saw my work that she had forgotten how much she used to enjoy relaxing on the couch, listening to music," says Mr. Kelly, who lives in Mercerville with his wife, Linda, and three young children. "I went around and just listened to what the people were saying about the violins. It was interesting to see what people were responding to. But I was really pleased that they liked my work. I take it to heart.

"People often ask me how I achieved such a recognizable style. (Lambertville artist) Sally Stang once said to me, 'My mother searched for years for a signature style and yours just walked in.' It's just the way I paint or draw."

Mr. Kelly's works, which are mostly acrylic on canvas, fall somewhere between realism and primativism, utilizing clean lines, uncluttered backgrounds and bold primary colors. Indeed, viewers seem to recognize the style immediately.

His paintings celebrate people engaged in everyday activities. A favorite subject is nightlife, with men and women dancing, drinking and dining together. Sometimes there's a touch of eccentricity in the work, for example, a couple eating breakfast food for dinner. There's a certain amount of interplay between his characters as well, and people have called Mr. Kelly's work "relationship paintings."

"Shrinks love my work," he says. "Friends of mine are psychologists and they seem to be especially drawn to the relationships in the paintings. One asked if I had a catalog because he wanted to use it in one of his group sessions, to see what kind of feedback he'd get."

There were special challenges to painting on a violin, however, including modifying the scale from his typically large-scale works.

"You have to use small brushes because of the small size," Mr. Kelly says. "And (painting) a vertical was more difficult, especially compensating for the weird shape of the instrument. The composition had a lot of curves on it. Also, although I've painted on wood before, it's a difficult surface to work with. I used acrylics because they dry more quickly. It seemed like an odd project at first. But I like the fact that it's interdisciplinary - it brings music and art together."

Mr. Kelly says it's been an interesting experience balancing the analytical side of himself required at the job - KNF Neuberger produces vacuum pumps for medical devices and environmental monitors, as well as pumps for bomb and drug detectors - with the more intuitive, creative side he brings to his artwork. You wonder when he finds time to paint when you throw in the fact that he has an 18-month-old son and twin infant daughters.

"It works out well, actually," Mr. Kelly says, "It's been a very yin-and-yang kind of thing. Things are kind of rigid (at the company). Everything is by the book, things need to be FDA-approved and what not. But in a painting I can do whatever I like. I have friends who are involved in the arts full-time and sometimes you can see they're experiencing an overload. For me, I know I have a certain amount of time for my art and I can do what I want. Thank goodness it's been going well - I don't have to worry about what people want."

Growing up in Trenton, Mr. Kelly says he was more inclined toward writing than visual arts. He never imagined painting for pleasure - much less public recognition - until he experimented with a few things to decorate his home. A relative admired the paintings and suggested he take some art classes, and Mr. Kelly enrolled at Mercer County Community College in West Windsor, studying with Mel Leipzig, among others. By the time he earned an associate's degree in fine arts in 1997, he had already collected several awards from various shows.

"Things seemed to come easily," he ways. "I got encouraged to enter shows, got a few write-ups in the papers and I got hooked. I had a breakthrough show in 1998 at Ellarslie. That's where C.J. Mugavero (owner of The Artful Deposit galleries in Bordentown and Allentown) saw my work. She took me on as a client and sold about 20 pieces that year. I said, 'Wow, this is a whirlwind.' It can also be a fickle business, though."

Viewers might see a touch of Amedeo Modigliani in Mr. Kelly's lanky, enigmatic characters. He says Modigliani is one of his influences, as well as Max Beckman and Balthus.

"I like the mannerists like Beckman and Balthus, but I think my paintings more resemble the expressionists," he says. "Not everything is a pretty picture. It's more about the feelings. I also saw the Alice Neel show in Philly and thought I wanted to do more with portraits - the kind she did, of regular people in her life. I read a lot of art history and it's interesting to see who influenced whom. Everybody looked at everybody else's work and their interrelationships (between painters) interests me. I especially like the impressionists, though. So many works were just trying to create a mood or scene.

The very fact that Mr. Kelly hasn't had years and years of art school or rigid studio training probably allows the subject matter to be more down-to-earth and the style to be so unusual.

"When I first started, I would deliberately try not to paint in the style of others," Mr. Kelly says. "I studied with Mel Leipzig and he said things like, 'Don't study at Rutgers, it'll ruin you.' He was very adamant about going your own way.