Introducing Kelly Russo

Kelly Russo is a multi-disciplinary creative and maker. Her typical week is filled with a career in architecture and design, teaching in the ULL college of the arts, co-operating the Hidden Gator Art Space run by her and fellow artist James Van Way III, and creating art in her home studio.

For her, creating is the ritual for being still, which is a private and intentional act. Regardless of medium, her overarching work utilizes imagery from nature as a representation of transcendent and dreamlike moments as she seeks that stillness as a constant - allowing silence in chaos as a slow verb. The intention is to blur the lines between present and past, edge and center, viewer and object. Her works are to be viewed as muses: feminine, powerful, ephemeral figures exhibiting continual strength, risking emerging beyond the edges of their constraints. 

On canvas, these efforts are evidenced using soft applications of washes to evoke the foggy Louisiana morning, the drenching rains dripping down, and directional flora expressions - the movement of winds through grass and foliage. Creatures are not objects, but sound like their appendages beating against still air and water. Her works on paper attempt to express the forces of nature in a flashing moment – to sense and to feel being more important than an object to be held.

In installations, she uses collage and found material to playfully break the barriers between forms and the viewer’s space, creating tactile pieces that move messily and imperfectly. These themes can also be seen in her architectural designs, where buildings are not intended to stand as monoliths, but as part of their landscape, both meeting one another in conversation.

Who makes up your art circle?

Those I think who get me and I deeply respect and cheer - Visual artists Susan David, Roz Lecompte, Lindsey Jenneman, Kali Picard, & Katie Baggett, dancer Melodee Lutgring, & writer Brooke Broussard. And of course, my forever friend and art partner, musician and (humble) writer, husband James Van Way.

How do you expand your art circle?

By actively seeking out ways to connect with more artists. My interest has always been in creating broader appreciation in the community and in myself for what it takes to expose your most vulnerable self through art. There are established organizations like ACA, the Hilliard, & now Basin Arts, which foster fantastic connections, awareness, and opportunity. But they all started small! It just means that we as artists shouldn’t stop there. There are presently some great moves being made around Lafayette by Archives, Lil’ Scrappie, Franco Fae, etc that link and prompt people. They all ask us to stop and take note of what talent we have here. We must be open to listening. 

What value do you see in having a creative community?

Our richness here is intrinsically linked to Lafayette’s cultural heritage and broken language. I think we are constantly trying to suture the two back together using artistic expression. Our own words, symbols, songs of pain, love. If we don’t express ourselves, how can we know if we share a connection? Because we are smaller, some of our creative outcomes overlap or seem to repeat – I don’t necessarily think that is a bad thing. I see it as a form of impression that if the repeated information is being reinterpreted, it must be compelling. I do, however, think local Cajun and Creole artists are in a perpetual state of potential renaissance. And by having a creative community, I think we can find our flow. And then we can go against it if we can find it, or whatever we want. To have a constant gives something against which to push. We are by nature not derivative people. I always expect good things from us creatively and am continually proven right.

How does your artistic approach contribute to your community?

The vision I have in mind when I make it is one of growth, of abundance, and continuity. My work in art and beyond tends to be an invitation to others to complete the story. I think if we make space for each other and support one another, the rest will take care of itself.

Our weekly Art Circle series profiles artists throughout the community and is sponsored in part by Lafayette Visitor Enterprise Fund, managed by Lafayette Travel.