Artist's Statement
My work is about nostalgia. My goal is capturing the beauty and the absurdity that I find, while investigating stories connected to my personal history. I retell stories from religion, fairy tales, and personal experience. Fears of death are reduced to silly scenarios with taxidermy and soft sculpture animals. When looking back to the grunge rock bands that I listened to, I lament the loss of the teenage angst and fantasies that are now replaced by adult feelings of anxiety.
I want the work to have a childlike appearance that is both pitiful and magical. Seductive colors and textures are used to entice the viewer, but they are then reminded of the base things that connect us as humans by seeing the piss, puke, and feces.
All of my objects are sewn and knotted together by hand, reflecting my closeness to the subject matter.
– KB
Artist's Bio
Kelly Boehmer is an adjunct professor at Florida state University, the Art Institute of Pittsburgh Online Division, and Chipola College. Kelly is a volunteer instructor for adult artists with developmental disabilities at Pyramid Studios, Tallahassee, Florida. She is a member of the perfomance band Glitter Chariot.
Selected Exhibitions & awards: 2010 – Lite-brite, Lite Box Gallery, Birmingham, Alabama; Ribbon of Darkness, The Front, New Orleans, Louisiana. 2009 – Spit it Out, The 621 Gallery, Tallahassee, Florida. 2008 – Seeing Green: an Eco-art Exhibition, Alija Derzelez House, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina; Freaks, Privateer Gallery, New York, New York. 2007 – Stories, The 621 Gallery, Tallahassee, Florida; Combined Talents: The Florida International Competition, Florida State University Museum of Fine Arts, Tallahassee, Florida. 2006 – Tranceplant, Circa Puerto Rico International Art Fair, San Juan, Puerto Rico; Acts, William and Nancy Oliver Gallery, Tampa, Florida; Hechas de Amore, Edge Zones Art Space, Miami, Florida; Venus in Faux Fur, Edge Zones Art Space, Miami, Florida; Jack and Jeanne Rozier Winter Fellowship; Martha and Evert Nolten Memorial Scholarship.
Crying Time, We're Gonna Hold On (Self-Portrait as Leviathan and Behemoth)
collaboration with Chuck Carbia
2011, mixed media, approx. 18'×15'×15'
Crying Time, We're Gonna Hold On (Self-Portrait as Leviathan and Behemoth) - detail
collaboration with Chuck Carbia
2011, mixed media, approx. 18'×15'×15'
Peace Dove
2007, mixed media, 12'×12'×10'
Peace Dove - detail
2007, mixed media, 12'×12'×10'
In Utero (I Miss the Comfort in Being Sad)
2010, mixed media, 4'×6'
Unicorns (I Am Breaking Eddie Vedder's Heart)
2010, mixed media, approx. 20'×15'×15'