Kellie Lehr (profile photo by Kat Wilson) lives and paints in the Fayetteville, Arkansas area. Her degree in International Economics first took her around the world before returning to Arkansas. Kellie and her work have been featured in numerous magazines and news stories. Her abstracts use color and shape to express her memories and life experiences and encourage the viewer to open up their senses and let down their guard. In addition to painting, Kellie is the Gallery Director for 211 South in Bentonville. Her work can be view at Boswell-Mourot Fine Art in Little Rock and at her website kellielehr.com.

AAS: Kellie, you were born and raised in Arkansas and graduated from the University of Arkansas with a degree in International Economics and Business. Where did this take you before you decided to become a full-time artist?

KL: I started traveling to Moscow, and St. Petersburg, Russia, as part of my first job after college and soon moved to Moscow full-time for about two years. I worked for a Food and Beverage distributor and with companies like Anheuser Busch and Tyson. After that, I moved to Southern California and began working with software manufacturers. I got married, had two children, and moved back to Arkansas in 2007. Along the way, I would start drawing or painting but would get frustrated with my results and soon stop. I wouldn't do anything for a while until I couldn't stand it any longer and start over. I finally decided to audit a class at the University of Arkansas, hoping I would hate it and could just let the whole "what if" thought go. Instead, I loved the rigor and the intellectual stimulation I found there and started integrating art-making into my life on a more consistent basis.
Although I grew up drawing and making stuff constantly as a kid, I wasn't exposed to art in any formal way until I was an adult. My mother is an artist but also worked as an ICU nurse while I was growing up. She always encouraged me to keep creating, keep making stuff. My father was adamant that I get a business degree. I became obsessed with fashion magazines in high school and drew lots of fashion models wearing crazy outfits, thinking I wanted to become a fashion designer. I entered an art contest and promised myself that I would go to art school no matter what if I won. I got 3rd place. I joined the University of Arkansas business program but continued taking French classes and soon found myself as the first graduate of a new program - International Business.

AAS: You are now working on your MFA from Lesley Art and Design in Boston. What brought you to this point?

KL: At a certain point, it just felt like the next right step. However, it did take me a while to decide and find the right program. I don’t think an MFA is required to be a successful artist, but it’s an intense and focused way to learn and grow fast in two years. I have family in Boston, and this program enables me to do my work here in AR and attend two intensive residencies per year. Receiving a significant merit scholarship also helped make the decision easier. I’ve learned so much this first semester, and I’m happy I decided to do it. I'm very thankful to my amazing husband, children, and friends for their support and encouragement to keep going.

AAS: You are the Gallery Director and Curator at 211 South in Bentonville. That must be exciting and challenging work, especially in these times.

KL: I enjoy curating, but yes, it's been a challenge with Covid this year. We weren’t able to open the gallery as we expected this spring due to Covid, so I created a 3D online exhibition working with an app called Exhibbit. We finally opened our doors this fall with Poetics of Places: Ziba Rajabi and Suzannah Schreckhise open until February 5th.
211 South was initially called The Gallery at MidtownAssociates and opened in 2016 as part of MidtownAssociates offices, a real estate firm. MidtownAssociates saw art as a way to help people connect to their community and with local artists. At the time, they were the only business in Downtown Bentonville that had local art on display. When Engel & Völkers partnered with MidtownAssociates earlier this year, the opportunity to remodel and rename became available. They are very supportive. Two of their executives even came to my exhibition at The Painting Center in Chelsea earlier this year. My business experience has been helpful in managing the gallery. I'm very excited about some new upcoming collaborations in the regular show schedule and a new temporary multisensory exhibit for 2021.

AAS: The art scene in Northwest Arkansas seems, at least to me, to be really expanding, and I've gotten the sense that artists there develop a bond amongst themselves for support and inspiration. Since you are living it, what do you think about the art scene there?

KL: There are so many incredible artists living here! I recently moved my studio to Mt. Sequoyah, where there are many dynamic and hard-working artists. I can't say enough about the U of A School of Art - students and teachers, and I could live at Crystal Bridges, The Momentary, and 21C. I enjoy collaborating with other artists and art organizations. My artist friends here in NWA mean a lot to me, and I try to give as much support as I receive, but it never feels like I can do enough for the support and inspiration I’ve received from them.

“One of the things I love about abstraction is the participation it encourages in the viewer. The freedom to make connections, see references or associations, or just feel a kind of visual rhythm and how it can unfold over time the more time you spend with the work.”

AAS: You have described your abstract paintings as ‘an amalgamation of real and unreal’. Is abstract representation something you have always painted?

KL: I started off drawing and painting representationally and moved to abstraction over time. Everything comes from my lived experience of being in the world. I find that a corner of a wall in Rome or an architectural reference from Barcelona shows up in my work even before I realize it sometimes. If you've never seen these things, you might not recognize what it is, or it might remind you of something completely different, which I think is excellent. One of the things I love about abstraction is the participation it encourages in the viewer. The freedom to make connections, see references or associations, or just feel a kind of visual rhythm and how it can unfold over time the more time you spend with the work.
I move back and forth between abstraction and representation when making a painting, and I find a lot of freedom there. I combine real things with imagination and play and look for unexpected moments. Materiality and process have become more important to me this past year. Painting to me is a call and response, and it requires me to be fully present.

AAS: One of my favorite works is Grounded. It has a very subdued palette, which I think adds to its mystery and interest, and marvelous depth from your use of removing paint. Would you talk about that piece and that technique?

KL: Thanks, Philip! The removal of paint is an essential part of my process. I often feel like an archeologist as I work to uncover bits covered up along the way. I think about what we don’t see but sometimes sense. Some things reveal themselves if we take the time to look and be present. I build up paintings through the addition and subtraction of layers. This multilayered approach sometimes reminds me of palimpsests from the Middle Ages. These were usually parchment papers erased and reused as a way to recycle. You can usually see bits of the original layers. I love how layers show history and speak to time and memory.

“The actual removal [of paint] feels like an uncovering, a revealing, which speaks to both time and memory.”

AAS: Untitled (April 15th) is another of your works on paper that I love but is quite different. The pallet is bold, and I see a reflective spring landscape – and want to sneeze from the flower pollen, but that is just me.

KL: I love that you had that reaction. I love thinking about the taste and smell that my paintings evoke. The layers represent more than just what you see on the surface. This particular palette refers not only to the landscape but also its digital reflection on the screen in our back pockets.
This painting is part of a series of works on paper that started when I began working at home due to Covid. I left my large oil paintings in my studio and began working on small papers with acrylic paint. I began scraping paint across the surface as a kind of meditative process. These works took on a reflective quality upon completion as well. I have since started thinking of many of them as functioning like scholar's rocks. Scholar’s rocks are naturally occurring or shaped stones traditionally appreciated by Chinese scholars used for meditation and inspiration.

AAS: Embedded Possibilities is a large work with lots of movement. It was accepted into the Delta Exhibition in 2017. Would you talk about that piece?

KL: One of my favorite artists is Lee Krasner, and she was part of the inspiration for this painting. I was also thinking a lot about the influence of technology on the way we connect.
Each of the fragmented areas represented parts of my life - consulting with high tech manufacturers with my company Channel Pursuits, working with the NWA Children's Shelter as a board member, raising two kids, and growing as an artist. The painting is made from a thought process, not unlike collage. We are all busy, and we all wear so many hats. I was trying to make sense of it all and find a way to assimilate. 
Being in the Delta introduced me to lots of new people, and I started working with a wonderful Gallerist Kyle Boswell of Boswell-Mourot Fine Art as a result.

AAS: You certainly do not shy away from exhibiting your work locally and all around the country. That can become a large expense. What is it about exhibitions that you enjoy?

KL: I enjoy meeting new people, making connections, getting feedback on the work, and seeing how it functions outside the studio. I spend most of my time alone working in my studio, so it's nice to get out every once in a while. I feel like once it leaves the studio, it does have a life of its own. Recently I showed work alongside Sam King, a painter, and one of my former University of Arkansas professors as part of Manifest Gallery’s annual “Tapped” exhibition in Cincinnati. The show highlights student/teacher work in pairs. The feeling I had when I stepped out of the cab and saw my painting highlighted through the window and then Sam’s next to it made me realize how fortunate I’ve been to work with him and so many excellent teachers at the U of A and just how far I’ve come since that first art class.

“Experience is multi sensory. Lately I’ve been thinking about what tastes, smells & sounds my paintings evoke. The layers represent more than just what you see on the surface.”

AAS: A number of your works were shown at The Painting Center in New York City and their invitational exhibition "New Optics" in 2020. In fact, Magic Soup Blanket and Pink and Smoke (see below) were chosen as website images for the show. Talk about that experience?

KL: I had applied and was accepted into their juried registry a year prior. I had seen the quality of paintings they showed in exhibitions, so it meant a lot to be admitted into their registry. Being invited to show in their invitational was a complete surprise! I was making large paintings at the time, and the invitational came with a size limit, so I had to make new work - I showed four paintings. It was an exciting experience. That show led to meeting some great people, great conversations with serious painters, and some of my most significant sales. It was the first show I’ve been in where the gallery was jam-packed with people trying to get in to see the art. I wanted to hug every single person at that show for their interest and enthusiasm.

AAS: What advice do you have for artists just starting out about getting their work out there? It may be a fear for some.

KL: It's essential to get your work out there. Applying to juried registries has helped me. Two local ones I can recommend are The Arkansas Arts Council and the ACNMWA for female artists. I started small and local. It can be scary to put your work out there, but it’s important to remind yourself that you have nothing to lose. Curating has helped me see that there are so many factors involved in decisions that you can't take personally. As Wayne Gretzky, the Hall of Fame hockey player, said, "You miss 100% of the shots you never take."