November 2025 Art UPDATES

Hi friend!

Life has continued life-ing since my last missive. The acute grief of losing my job of 16 years has subsided, but the job market is grim. Maybe you too have been in the trenches? In the last few months, I have been interviewed by AI bots, tossed out of the running by AI because of technicalities or missed words, and offered endless remote jobs that are basically just training AI models (and rarely other work). It’s grim. AI is the main reason our electricity bills are skyrocketing. And AI is accelerating our descent into an unchangeable climate catastrophe. But  I digress.

 In some kind of resistance to all the forced machine learning lately, I’ve been trying to make more art lately. I spent the last couple months creating work in what I’m calling “analog Photoshop” style. Based off of my 2021 site-specific installation Fallout Shelter at Hair+Nails Gallery, I have been utilizing the same photos of canned goods that I used as wallpaper in the gallery. I’ve laminated wooden panels of varying sizes with these inkjet photo prints (original photos I took at grocery stores including CUB foods here in Minneapolis, and corner markets in France, Greece, and Ireland during my travels in late 2019), and then used watercolor paints to alter the brand or food names. For instance, the traditional French dish cassoulet becomes CREATIVITY, the Greek canned milk brand NoyNoy becomes JOYJOY (of course!), and the extra large can of Maiz Blanco is transformed into the extra necessary MUTUAL AID! It was relaxing and quite fun to do the color matching. Satisfying, just like those social media videos of people color matching a landscape or eyes or a still life to make the little card become invisible! Except, I wasn’t going for completely invisible. I want some evidence of the hand - the haptic evidence of the analog felt important  as we move evermore into a digital age that seeks to cross the uncanny valley. 

So if this piqued your interest - you can find the pieces at the MCAD Art Sale next week - November 20-22 (online preview here!). There are a range of sizes and prices to match your budget and your wallspace! And if you are excited about this experiment in analog photoshop but can’t make it to the MCAD Art Sale or don’t live in the Twin Cities - let me know! I’m rather excited to make more of these if there’s interest. 
 In other creative news, I’m working on launching a small (5”x7” or 4”x6” - haven’t ironed everything out yet) monthly print subscription starting in the new year! These are fine art giclée prints, archival and full color, of original artwork, coming directly to your mailbox every month. These prints will be original works, available exclusively to subscribers in limited editions. And as a bonus, I will be donating a portion of the profits from every print subscription sold to various fundraisers and causes every month, so not only will you be supporting this queer, disabled small business, you’ll be helping support 12 mutual aid efforts as well. I’m excited to try out this experiment in sustainability with a subscription offering on top of creating something that also directly helps others as well. Stay tuned for more info and how to sign up!


Also, a reminder that there are zines (Bolozine!, ADAPT!, and more!), ceramic necklaces (lots of new stock coming soon for the holiday season!), and giclée prints of my paintings and drawings in my webstore. If you’re looking for holiday gifts for anyone who loves bold statements and radical politics, there’s a lot of perfect stuff in my shop!

In love and solidarity,
Kelley

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