Statement

There are six actions that are essential to the 52 Paintings for 52 Strangers project:

1. Once a week for a year, the artist seeks out strangers who perform positive acts (big and small) and schedules a one-hour meeting.
2. During the one-hour (+) conversation with the "stranger," the artist practices listening and asking questions.
3. After the conversation with the stranger, the artist has a week to complete a "portrait" that embeds as many elements of the conversation as possible into its image. The painting may not be changed after the week passes.
4. The artist experiments—in form, in storytelling, in surface, in color—to insure each painting is as unique as the conversation it represents.
5. The artist draws as many of the 52 "strangers" together at once for a culminating celebration where the paintings are revealed.
6. At the end of the show's single exhibit, the artist gives each painting as a gift of gratitude to its perspective "stranger."

There are many rules that exist within each of the elements listed above—the project would be untenable if restrictions were not put into place to eliminate creative possibilities—but the reflections that can grow from this simple list of actions have proven virtually endless.

The project explores how we present ourselves, how we are perceived, and the interaction between the two. As conversations in the project accumulate, the text-to-world attachments multiply. The project becomes about virtues and altruism. It is about simplicity. It is about experiencing "art" and beauty. It is about privilege, technology, time, and social structures. It's about tribes. It's about prejudice and personal responsibility. It's about commodification and feelings of hopelessness. It's often about hope. Many people wanted their paintings to convey "hope." It's about addiction, sickness, and any number of tragedies. It's about loneliness. It's about greed. It's about ego. It's about binaries and broken dialogues. It's about news cycles, the weather, and the artist. It's about absence of conflict. It's about uncertainty and trust. It's about language. It's about reflection, listening, "others," and positivity. It's about clutter.

It is a film, a graphic novel, a boxed set of songs, two seasons of a reality show, or a crowded room.

As a community art project, 52 Paintings for 52 Strangers has been endorsed by the Alabama Bicentennial Commission as an official bicentennial project. It perfectly exemplifies the bicentennial's themes of "Honoring Our People" (2018) and "Sharing Our Stories" (2019). The art series will be in exhibition at the Jan Dempsey Community Arts Center from September 12-October 10, 2018.

About the Artist

Bay Kelley received a BFA in Painting and Drawing from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and a Masters in Education from Lee University. His works in painting, drawing and comics are oriented around ways to document the everyday and to engage more directly and empathically with diverse groups of people. Having worked as a Middle School Special Education teacher for over a decade in the Southeast and the Midwest, Kelley’s work as both an artist and an educator is inspired by questions of community, service, and commitment to others. He currently lives in Auburn, Alabama.

On 52 Paintings for 52 Strangers:

"In the end, as the artist, I concede the project is whatever the viewer makes it. I believe that I have provided some interesting fodder for thought and great tools for digging. Honestly, trapped in my own head with this project for the last year, I cannot wait to hear what is revealed by the interpretation of others."