This Day African View on Global News
Art from the Collective Consciousness
By Okechukwu Uwaezuoke, 05.02.2005

Encounter

His art looks African. A stereotypical verdict, perhaps. But then, muses the viewer, who can resist the urge to draw such parallels? Do Kelly Moore's works not after all strongly evoke those qualities that collectors love to celebrate about African art? For so much about these works verges on the intuition rather than the intellect.
Stumbling on the Arkansas-born artist's web site is the result of about half an hour of surfing frantically on the web for works by Western artists obviously or apparently referencing African art. It is something about the childlikeness of Moore's works that compels the viewer to pause in his search.

Kelly Moore, he learns, is a self-taught artist, who currently lives in Santa Fe (New Mexico). That he paints the way he does, uninfluenced and with no formal training or education in art, is rather interesting. So this is no modern-day Pablo Picasso seeking unconventional ways of giving his art a terrific shot in the arm. Nor is this a case of a Western artist, whose contact with African art is gradually rubbing off on his art. This is a case of an original and expressive work, just as the information on his web site (http://www.kellymoore.net) says.

This could be why his art has been variously referred to as "Outsider Art", "Art Brut", "Raw Art" and "Visionary Art". "His intuitive style and technique reflects a raw, primitive quality that is frequently juxtaposed with a startling innocence," says an additional information.
The artist himself says: "My work is primarily about the integration of the Light and Dark within myself."

Moore, the viewer expects, should be unsullied by the academicisms. He should be the Western equivalent of the non-academic Nigerian artists like Nike Okundaye-Davies, Jimoh Buraimoh and Muraina Oyelami, among others or the likes of the Congolese Chri Samba, and the Ivorian, Frederic Bouabr?.

Besides being well exhibited in art centres, galleries and museums both within and outside the United States, Moore is avidly collected not only in his country but also in Europe. But the artist remains impervious to the obvious accolades that come from being celebrated. "From my experience, exhibiting, selling art and even being recognised by the arts community has made no difference in my being more happy," he tells this writer in a recent on-line interview.

But he plays down the African factor. "I suppose I am just as much by Romanian art ", he says. "the world is very connected and I'm part of that connection."
"That [the reference to Romanian art] was a joke to explain the connection of humanity becoming more obvious due to the internet, " he later adds. "[Carl] Jung referred to the collective consciousness as a way to explain similar things that bubbled up in peoples from all over the planet. We are one people."

So how did he come about this unique form of expression? "It's who I am. I have no training, it just flows from me."
Yet, Moore affirms his predilection for Child Art. "Have you ever looked closely at them? They are perfect," he gushes.

On the notion of Primitive Art, he says: "No one owns anything. I don't own 'primitive' any more than a pygmy in New Guinea does. This thing comes from deep within the human heart."

Painting, it is obvious, for Moore just started. He did not need an Ulli Beier-like workshop to inspire him. Nor was he trying to give his art a new lease of life a la Pablo Picasso. "I just paint. It's not an idea, it just what I am", he reiterates.
Painting in his case can be likened to a journey towards self-discovery. "I began painting as a way to know myself better. Therapy almost."

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