Today we’d like to introduce you to Bonnie Kelly.
Hi Bonnie, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work life, how can you bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
My name is Bonnie Kelly, and I am an aspiring mural artist born and raised in Austin, Texas. I honestly didn’t believe I had an artistic bone in my body until roughly 8 months ago when I couldn’t sleep one night, picked up a paintbrush, and started painting on my walls. Growing up, I had no idea what I wanted to be or who I wanted to be. My parents never pushed college or spoke to me about the future, and as soon as I hit my teenage years, I struggled immensely with substances and found myself in rehab for 9 months at the age of 15. From there, I floated around, got married at 19, my husband joined the Air Force, and we had two children by the time I was 21. I never once asked myself if I wanted to do any of this. So it’s not a surprise by 26, I was divorced. I found myself a year later in a highly abusive relationship, pregnant again, and more lost than I had ever been. That relationship shook me, and I will never be the same. However, I don’t think I would have ever found art or myself without having experienced everything I did. After a 4 year battle to escape my hell, I was left with nothing but me and forced to get to know who I was.
In the past 8 months, I have fallen head over heels in love with painting and was inspired to paint murals after the Uvalde shooting. My ex-husband is also an artist, and we were watching Matthew McConaughey’s speech afterward, and my husband mentioned that he should start doing activist art. He never said it again, but that speech haunted me. The children he spoke about hit so close to home for me. My daughter also wants to be a marine biologist, my son an artist, and my youngest a lover to all, and it just hit so hard for me. I can’t imagine and don’t want to imagine how the parents of those children feel sitting there in agony; another thought popped into my head, “What if someone was able to celebrate all those children’s lives? What if I called that school in Corpus Christi that little girl dreamed of attending and asked them if someone could paint a mural in her honor”. It is my dream to somehow paint a mural for every one of those children. Not 1 single mural at the school united them in death, but 1 unique mural for each unique child celebrated who that child was in life. That is my dream and what I’m trying to do with my art.
Can you talk to us about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Domestic violence, children, substance abuse
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Aspiring muralist, but I’ve been a project manager for 8 years in the solar industry.
What matters most to you? Why?
My goal as a mural artist is to create meaningful and impactful art that resonates with people on a deep level. Art has the power to heal, transform, and uplift, and I am committed to using my talents to make a positive difference in the world.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: instagram.com/ardentbdesign
