THE LYRIC COLLECTION SINGS!

Last week, early August in Aspen...it's the long awaited unveiling of the Lyric Collection, my design collaboration with the amazing Kelly O'Donovan, artist and co-owner of the Elliott Yeary Gallery in Aspen.  (Read more about our work together here in a post from May 1st.) The unveiling coincided with ArtCrush, the annual gala for the Aspen Art Museum.  Unimaginable energy is in the air, so much creativity and stunning natural beauty! 

Aspen trees in late summer

Teresita Fernández's "Blind Land (Green Mirror)," part of a current exhibit at the Aspen Art Museum 

I pinch myself.  Again I am reminded how my work is a catalyst for such extraordinary experiences.  In this case, it's the opportunity to create something all new, even a bit out of the box.

Our feature in the current issue of Aspen Magazine

The Lyric Collection is truly a meeting of two aesthetics.  You'll recognize me in the exotic stones and unique settings.  What Kelly brings to the Collection is an artist's eye.  In her work, words come to life to tell the kind of story that breaks your heart and makes you laugh, all for its honesty.  It was this raw courage that captured my imagination when I saw Kelly's canvases earlier this year.

Kelly and I at the Gallery in front of her painting, entitled Amazed

Being in Aspen to unveil the Lyric Collection gave me a chance to learn more about the inspiration behind Kelly's work, about her vision and her life.

Let me introduce you to Kelly.

Elizabeth:  Kelly, Amazed is truly an amazing work of art.  In the painting, you even talk about atoms and protons.  Will you say more?

Kelly:  I work from the perspective that we are all on the deepest level, interconnected, we're all one.  The painting has a section called ‘Science Lesson’- it is a simple explanation about all things in the physical world being made up of the same thing down to particles. While we don’t know what particles are made of, we do know each one is connected to every other one in the Universe. We all share something. This fact should make us all feel a bit less lonely and more compassionate and altruistic toward each other.

Elizabeth:  We used Deep Blue Sea in the design of our Lyric Collection earrings.  These words also appear in Amazed.

Kelly:  The Deep Blue Sea section of the painting that those earrings are based on is about that big feeling of in-loveness we all have at least once in our lives. When we are little, maybe it is about our mother or father or a sibling. When we grow up it can be about a significant other and even our child. It’s about loving someone else so much, that marvelous wanting to be in the presence of another. The wish to have them all to yourself, for just a moment but hopefully longer. The dream of getting on a boat and just floating together and letting ‘the wind and the waves’ carry you away.

A pair of earrings from the Lyric Collection

Elizabeth: And the hidden key under a rock by the door?  That too is in Amazed.

Kelly:  Right!  When you are close to someone, you know where that key is--there is a familiarity that's comforting. For me, that part in particular is about my Mom. She passed away last year. All of my life, she always left a key under a rock by her front and back doors. All who she loved knew where it was and were invited to come inside her warm and cozy home. That line also rings true in a different way for someone we are in a loving relationship with. Sometimes we close ourselves off, intentionally or not, but those that love us always know there is a key and they will be ‘let in’, so to speak.

Elizabeth:  I love your honesty--I definitely share these feelings about life and love and our interconnectedness.  So, is your work all autobiographical?

Kelly:   This painting is very autobiographical in that it is a written and painted expression of my thoughts and feelings about life, relationship, love and more. The fun is observing people ‘reading’ the work and identifying so completely with so much of it. Further proving our interconnectedness. A primo example of that is here in Amazed (she points to her painting and reads): "There might be some tendencies that lean toward the dramatic.” 

OK, I think she may be referring to herself with those words, but Kelly is calm and cool, and such a centered person.  With that very fun tendency that "leans toward the dramatic!" Introducing Kelly O'Donovan, and the Lyric Collection!

"Amazed" by Kelly O'Donovan and the back side of the Lyric Collection Pendant

Feel beautiful,

Elizabeth