“It’s really exciting. There are only seven or eight in the Miami Valley that received this,” said Booze. “It came at a really great time. The pandemic has decreased opportunities for teaching and workshops.”
While she’s done a residency in France and exhibited in Columbus and other big Ohio cities, her hometown is where she’s glad to be based.
“Our area has a rich art history. We’ve built a cultural foundation,” she said.
Booze’s work may be familiar to the community and the state, even if her name isn’t, through various exhibitions and events including multiple Springfield Museum of Art Juried Exhibitions; as the featured artist in 2018 at Urbana’s annual Art Affair on the Square; and as a presenter at the Westcott House’s PechaKucha events.
Booze also serves on The Chamber of Greater Springfield’s Public Art Committee that helps beautify the community through efforts such as the signal box wraps that appeared across the city in 2020.
She may be even better known as an instructor for the SMOA and Project Jericho, as well as a presence at the Hatch Artist Studios during First Friday events. She was the first artist to apply for a space there and has the largest individual space.
It was at the SMOA that Booze got inspired to be an artist, starting classes at age 7 and looks forward to teaching again once the pandemic lifts.
“Museums are great for so many reasons,” said Booze. “I’m a fan of education classes but we also need to talk about art and art history.”
Known mainly for her oil paintings and also for her drawing and printmaking, Booze describes her work as being about resilience, transformation and place.
“I like the relationships with humans and nature,” she said. “I depict scenes of stillness, quiet spaces with little or no activity, buildings and empty parking lots but filled with light, mood and memories. I like the understated, unexpected beauty of these places and try to make something beautiful out of it.”
Local places including the former International Harvester sight on Lagonda Ave., the recently demolished Crowell-Collier building or other little downtown areas are prominent in Booze’s art.
“They’re a compilation of how I remember a place. Also my grandpa would tell me stories about them,” she said.
The real satisfaction is during events such as First Friday, which always include open houses at Hatch Artist Studios, when visitors see Booze’s work and someone would whisper to a friend “That looks so familiar.”
“I like that, it starts a conversation and that is so important with art,” she said.
For samples of Booze’s work, visit her official website at kelleybooze.com or her Instagram page.
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