Kelly Drive congratulates the Fairmount Park Art Association, a huge winner in the Knight Arts Challenge! They plan to host a world premiere public art event in the next year utilizing a truly innovative medium: Search lights. From the FPAA brief:

To create a new kind of communal space, the Fairmount Park Art Association will launch a public art event of roving searchlights that will transform the night sky. Using a free custom-made mobile app, participants will use their voices to activate 24 powerful robotic searchlights placed along Benjamin Franklin Parkway – creating enormous three-dimensional formations that take into account the GPS location of the participant’s device. Informational “headquarters” along the parkway with trained volunteers will allow visitors to interact with the display and experience both the arts and Philadelphia’s public parkway. In addition, during the week, community groups will be invited to kick off the night by speaking on an important theme or topic, increasing civic engagement around art.

Really though, what more can you ask for?? The arts, community engagement, Fairmount Park and the great outdoors... Here's hoping KD's namesake gets a big slice of the pie. You can be sure we'll be front and center checking out all the event has to offer... Congrats to the FPAA again and looking forward seeing you there!

A special kind of excitement this week as a much-anticipated feature arrived on the newstands yesterday... !

I was approached by Philadelphia Magazine last month to do a special feature on Kelly Drive and my home for a new feature called "Personal Space." As part of a larger section on style, food, shopping and more, the piece shows off my pink living room (aka salon) with work from Kelly Drive showcased within. Though they didn't get ALL the work I'd hoped-- an impossible task I know-- they did a fantastic job with everything, especially photography and writing (special thanks to Sam Oberter and Nicole Garman). In the final spread, Ben Gatski, Michael Biello, and Warren Beishir were featured alongside some work of my own... I'm so proud of everyone's efforts, seen and unseen, and thankful to have such a great community of talented artisans with which to work. Congratulations to all, and looking forward to the many more features to come.

We're very pleased to have Maria and her attractive earthenware join Kelly Drive's creative community! Mugs, teapots, pitchers and more all featuring a colorful cast of scraffito characters are now available in our unique collection.

Maria Dondero has lived in Athens, GA for ten years now and considers it her home. Born in Yaoundé Cameroon, the youngest of five children, her large family and travel has influenced her work greatly. A love of eating delicious food and an appreciation for how the presentation of that food adds to the experience lead her to pottery. She took her first class while living in Guanajuato, Mexico in 2000 and fell in love and has been making pots and teaching ever since. Following in her family’s footsteps, Dondero continued to study and work abroad, being particularly influenced by Terracotta in Italy and slipware in Japan.

Her work focuses on functional pottery whose aesthetics draw on the age old and worldwide history of ceramics. While subtly referencing pottery traditions from around the world, Maria intuitively sketches images from her surroundings, grounding her work in the Georgia soil.

Gallery artist Warren Beishir bring his work to Kelly Drive's inspired collection!

Warren Beishir has been documenting NYC and Brooklyn's ever changing face for 10 years. His work focuses on urban decay and renewal, and the overdevelopment of Brooklyn and New York. He hopes to capture places of New York's forgotten everyday scenes.

Please welcome Tabitha Long and her architecturally-salvaged objects to Kelly Drive!

Creative seamstress extraordinaire Rebekah Smith has just joined Kelly Drive's community of artisans!

In her own words: "I'm the daughter of junk hoarders. I grew up in a small house on Long Island that was literally filled to the brim with vintage stuff. Back when I was a kid, this was rather embarrassing. But now it's all hip and chic to collect all things vintage and scout out garage sales and thrift stores... I just discovered that I ADORE lavender (why did I wait so long to find that out?) and so I'm having a ball making sachets while breathing in the heavenly scent at the same time."

Inquirer food critic offers up a lauding review of Sean Gilvey's Telegraph Tumblers... "Telegraph Whiskey Tumblers from Hudson Beach Glass. Great booze deserves a great glass, and these handblown "Telegraph" series tumblers from Old City artisan glassblower Sean Gilvey offer the perfect balance of style and function. Inspired by antique railroad insulators, the deep ridges ringing the base aren't merely a stroke of postindustrial chic - they assure a sure and comfy grip on your favorite spirit as you sniff, swirl, and sip. The $40 "single" is perfect for neat spirits, the larger $45 double works for whiskey on the rocks. A new flanged glass, $45, is ideal for absinthe."

Please join us in welcoming the metal working Gatski's to Kelly Drive's little home on the web! 

Our place is "Gatski Mountain," a hilltop in rural Pennsylvania. We are Ben & Kate Gatski. Ben is a welder, a farmer, artist and dad. Kate is a creator, cook, entrepreneur and mom. Together they established their business in 2003, designing and fabricating unique metalworks using reycled farm machinery parts. Prior to starting their business, Ben operated an organic dairy business and Kate organized educational events for farmers in sustainable agriculture. Now, they are making all their passions visible.

We're very pleased to have Marc Knight join Kelly Drive's creative community!

Marc is a commercial builder in Austin Texas. He designs pieces that reflect his interest in history, architecture, metal and mechanics.He enjoys trout fishing and working in his workshop with his son.

We're very excited to have the very talented Sean Gilvey join our creative community...

Sean Gilvey is a third generation glassblower who designs and produces his line of bar-ware, suspension bowls, and one-of-a-kind goblets out of his studio on Strawberry Street in Philadelphia. He runs his glass gallery, Hudson Beach Glass, with his wife Emily.

(Sean's dapper profile pic coming soon!)

Kelly Drive is very pleased to welcome artist Gail Cunningham to our creative community!

In her own words...
My work centers around a fascination with social organization, specifically the format of the house and its interior anatomy. All of these pieces are hand cut out of a single sheet of paper, making them fragile and lace-like. While I often find the design phase of the work nerve wracking and a test of will, the process of cutting paper is meditative and cathartic for me. The finished work and the process become a place where I can exert control and a sense of perfection that is seemingly otherwise absent in daily life.

Kelly Drive is very excited to bring on designer, woodworker and artist Tim Lewis to our community... Tim's an independent designer/maker living and working in Philadelphia. He builds furniture, sculpture and occasionally experiments with lighting design. His furniture is often a combination of clean lines and vibrant colors. He enjoys hoagies, soft pretzels and Rocky too.

Kely Drive is very proud to welcome artist-designer-fabricator Robert Aiosa to our cretive community!

Something worthwhile to share.... Philadelphia Magazine's Home edition recently featured one of our very own!  Editor Lauren McCutcheon highlights the talents of Kevin Derrick , who offers us lessons in the fine art of decorating your walls...

A project over a year in the works, Kelly Drive has finally gone LIVE with a select group of designers and the inspiring work they create.  We've added the essential Facebook and Twitter pages so you can visit us elsewhere on the web (and make sure you add us, fan us, friend us or follow us, whatever the case may be).  Just go to the home page and click the links on the lower right part of the page.... Thanks much!

Kelly Drive is very proud to welcome designer RJ Thornburg to our creative community! 

From his provocative studio, RJ Thornburg brings a multi-layered approach to each of his unique products. A self-styled anti-decorator with over thirty years of experience in residential, commerical and hospitality design, RJ has received recognition from such illustrious sources as The New York Times, Interior Design Magazine and Elements of Living.

Kelly Drive is very proud to welcome artist Warren Muller to our creative community! 

With an enviable dexterity, Warren Muller creates fantastic lighting sculptures from an assorted collection of found, recycled, and salvaged objects. In his capable hands, small statuary, ladders, wheels, taxidermy, industrial machinery, musical instruments and even full-size automobiles have all been faithfully transformed from the everyday into the extraordinary. Part whimsical and part sublime, Muller’s novel approach has been promoted in a variety of settings including corporate, residential, civic and hospitality as well.

Kelly Drive is proud to announce that artist Matt Shiley has joined our creative community!

Kelly Drive is very proud to include Michael Biello within our creative community!

Michael and his partner own a salon-like studio/boutique with inspired works the likes of which you’ll not see again. Creators of art, music and light, their signature chandeliers and Family Jewels are especially enchanting.

Kelly Drive is very excited to welcome artist Rebecca Pulver to our creative community!

As a self-declared multidisciplinary, Rebecca skirts the edges of art, craft and design through creative experimental-exploration. Her interplay of various materials and techniques has been expressed in mixed media sculpture, metal electroform, fiber craft, cast jewelry and most recently, the decorative arts.

Not even officially launched and already changing things up around here... We think our new look will be a great way to deliver our message (and look good doing it too). By the way, it's based on an vintage mark from an actual postcard for Kelly Drive, circa 1907... Pretty cool, right?