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Visual Artist, “Rise Up New Orleans”

Few artists can capture the soul of New Orleans in their work, like visual artist Margaret Slade Kelley. Recognized as one of the art world’s leading talents, Kelley’s aesthetic masterpieces have been commissioned by everyone, from art connoisseurs to high-profile clients like Essence magazine, Chevrolet and MCA Records.

“In style, I’m an impressionist, and in influence [my paintings] are of the African and Caribbean palette,” says Kelley of her celebrated artwork. “It’s colorful and figurative, [and] most people are familiar with my images of musicians.”

It’s her vivid depictions of performers that recently garnered Kelley the coveted role as designer for this year’s New Orleans Jazz Festival’s Congo Square poster. Beyond featuring the city’s musical flavor, she also portrays the struggles of its people post-Hurricane Katrina in her riveting “Rise Up New Orleans” series.

“Part of my mental relief is to paint images of people reaching for home … some people are in trailers, some people are living under bridges [and] people’s lives have been changed,” says Kelley, who lost some of her paintings in the storm. “I just recently figured out how to live with this [feeling of loss], because it’s not going away.”

Kelley has since relocated to Lithonia, Ga., and plans to open a new art studio in New Orleans. Through all of her professional peaks and valleys, she says her passion for painting remains unshakeable. “I’m real proud to be blessed enough to have this journey which has taken 42 years. I live my dream. I’m an artist. I wake up and paint,” says Kelley. “I just hope I can give 42 years more.”
–marissa mitchell

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