Biography
Artist Mary Kelsey draws on site, from life, rarely using photos. She has worked in various locations in Latin America and the United States. Her paintings and drawings have been exhibited and published in the United States, Central America, and Colombia. She spent over a year in Central America as a Fulbright scholar, and collaborated with photographer Steve Cagan on a project in Colombia. A Cleveland native, she holds degrees from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and Stanford University.
El artista Mary Kelsey hace los dibujos en situ y vivo, por mayor parte sin utilizando fotos. Ha trabajado en varias partes de América Latina y los EEUU. Sus dibujos y pinturas han sido incluidos en exposiciones y publicaciones en los EEUU, Colombia, Guatemala y Honduras. Mary ha pasado año y medio como becaria Fulbright en Centroamérica, y después ha colaborado con el fotógrafo Steve Cagan en un proyecto en Colombia. Ella es nativa en Cleveland, Ohio, EEUU, y tiene títulos de la Universidad Stanford y la Escuela del Museo de Bellas Artes en Boston.
Artist’s Statement
Drawing and painting have always given me great pleasure, and through making images I’ve tried to speak – in the way a visual artist speaks – about things that matter, including the natural world and our ways of living in it. Working with images of a mangrove swamp I knew as a child, I wanted to learn more about it, and traveled to Costa Rica where I first encountered a tropical rainforest. That led me to learn more of these forests and their people. Later, with the help of a Fulbright grant, I spent a year and a half in Central America. I drew pen and ink sketches of people and places that told stories of forest preservation (or not). I collaborated with local groups, providing illustrations for projects designed to slow forest degradation. I was intrigued by how people responded to my drawing them.
Pintar y dibujar me dan mucha alegría. A través de la acción de dibujar, intento comunicar sobre unas cosas de importancia, tales como la naturaleza y cómo vive el ser humano dentro de ella. Me encantaba una imagen de mangles que conocí de niña, por eso viajaba a Costa Rica para aprender mas. Más allá de eso empecé a estudiar los bosques tropicales y sus pueblos. Pasé año y medio en Centroamérica, a través una beca Fulbright. Hacía dibujos de la gente y los lugares con sus historias del bosque. Colaboraba con unas ONG y hacía ilustraciones para sus proyectos en contra de la deforestación. Más tarde viajaba en Colombia dibujando en colaboración con un proyecto de justicia ambiental. Así mismo me interesaba cómo respondió la gente cuando yo les estaba dibujando. Pues, el de dibujar como manera de iniciar diálogo y comunicar sobre los asuntos que nos preocupan todavía hoy en día me encanta.
Curriculum Vitae
Publications
'The Price of Gold: Mechanized mining in El Chocó, Colombia’, Steve Cagan and Mary Kelsey. 2020.
E-book, also published as El Precio del Oro, Medellin, Colombia: Diocese of Quibdó, 2020.
Majestuoso Atrato: Relatos bioculturales del río [The Majstic Atrato: Biocultural tales of the river], Tierra Digna, Bogotá Colombia. 2017
Majestuoso Atrato: Relatos bioculturales del río, Calendar for 2019 celebrating the Atrato river’s gaining legal status, text by Sterlin Londoño Palacios, Diocese of Quibdó, Colombia.
Diocese of Quibdó, Colombia: Office of Human Rights, various publications 2015 to the present.
ReVista, Harvard Review of Latin America. 2014
'Mining': Illustrations for “Mining Challenges in Colombia’s El Chocó' by Steve Cagan.
'Heights Bikeway Map' for EcoCity Cleveland. 2002
'Lake Erie Watersheds: a Bioregional Map, poster for EcoCity Cleveland. 2000
'Land and dreams: one family’s conservation easement', EcoCity Cleveland. 2001
To Be Healed by the Earth by Warren Grossman, illustration and text design. 1998
“Eating regionally: a winter’s tale”, illustrated article, EcoCity Cleveland. 1996
'Making time for a new food system: further notes on the realities of regional eating”, 2001
'Communities, Pictures and Conservation: An artist gathers images in Central American rain forests.' High Plains Applied Anthropologist, Boulder: Vol. 15, No. 1, 1995.
Sendero Nuevo, 120-page primer documenting Miskito cultural heritage: Bilingual Education Program, Ministry of Education, Honduras, 1994.
Photographs and drawings of the Rio Platano Biosphere Reserve, Cafe y Naranja, Tegucigalpa, Honduras: Vol. IV, No. 142, Nov. 1993.
Coastal Talamanca: A Cultural and Ecological Guide, Costa Rica, 1993.
Environmental education calendar with full-color illustrations, CARE Guatemala, 1993.
“Conservation and community in Costa Rica’s Osa Peninsula”, illustrated, Cape Cod Times, March 1993.
Selected Exhibitions
Memory and Resistance: 40th Anniversary of the InterReligious Task Force on Central America and Colombia. ArtiCle Gallery, Cleveland: December 2020 – January 2021.
Laurel School, Cleveland: 2016
St Bonaventure University, Quick Center; Sarasota Arts Center, Florida: 2015
Baldwin Wallace University; Cleveland State University: 2014
Northern Ohio Illustrators Society at Powerhouse Gallery, Cleveland: 1997, 1999.
Wasmer Gallery, Ursuline College, 1996.
Phillips Academy, Andover, MA: 1994.
Stellwagen Gallery, Provincetown, solo exhibition 1991.
Warwick Art Museum, Rhode Island, 1990.
Cape Cod Community College, solo and group exhibitions, 1989, 1990.
Babson College, Wellesley, MA: solo exhibition 1990.
Chapel Gallery, Newton, MA: solo exhibition 1988; group exhibition 1990.
Provincetown Art Association, 1989.
Pleiades Gallery, New York, 1988.
Arnold Arboretum, Boston: solo exhibition 1986.
Van Buren, Brazelton, Cutting Gallery, Cambridge: 1982.
Salander-O’Reilly Gallery, New York: 1977, 1978, solo exhibition 1980.
Sunne Savage Gallery, Boston: solo exhibition: 1979.
Selected Projects
Documentary drawings for Southern Poverty Law Center: Legal help for immigrant detainees at Stewart Detention Center, Georgia.
“Cleveland Before Cleaveland”, murals for Cleveland bicentennial, Museum of Natural History.
Fulbright research grant: “Drawings and photographs: communities, rain forest conservation and sustainable development”. Costa Rica, Guatemala and Honduras,1992-3.