{"id":20946,"date":"2026-02-11T20:05:31","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T20:05:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2026\/02\/11\/john-kelly-ponders-the-day-his-art-nearly-crippled-him\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T20:05:50","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T20:05:50","slug":"john-kelly-ponders-the-day-his-art-nearly-crippled-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2026\/02\/11\/john-kelly-ponders-the-day-his-art-nearly-crippled-him\/","title":{"rendered":"John Kelly Ponders the Day His Art Nearly Crippled Him"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cA Friend Gave Me a Book\u201d is a series of 182 panels reflecting on a traumatic accident in 2002. Photo: Fred Voon for Observer<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

John Kelly<\/a>\u2019s artistic medium is being an artistic medium. For four decades, he has channeled the spirits of other creators, from the legendary Joni Mitchell<\/a> to the imaginary Dagmar Onassis, a love child of opera legend Maria Callas<\/a> and shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis<\/a>. \u201cPerformance for me remains character embodiment,\u201d he says, \u201cwhether it\u2019s an existing character or a character I invent.\u201d<\/p>\n

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In \u201cA Friend Gave Me a Book\u201d at PPOW in New York, Kelly switches gears to visual media and turns his gaze inward to examine the most familiar yet inscrutable figure: himself. Over 182 illustrated panels, he recounts the traumatic 2002 accident that prompted him to reconsider the meaning and direction of his practice. The work has the feel of a freeform scrapbook, rendered in Prismacolor pencils, pastel and paint, embellished with string, silver leaf and sequin fabric. Prose flows into poetry, and remembered scenes blend with recreated paintings.<\/p>\n

As the title suggests, it all began with a book: Caravaggio<\/a><\/i> by John T. Spike<\/a>. Inspired by the Italian painter\u2019s tragic demise and brutally frank depictions of humanity, Kelly developed a performance as Dargelos Giacovarag, a character based on a cabaret alter ego. Like Caravaggio, Dargelos would die at 39, on the run, \u201cmaking art to the bitter end.\u201d \u201cMy entire career has been informed by mortality, by loss, by notions of life and death,\u201d Kelly tells Observer. Little did he know that this piece would lead to his own brush with paralysis, if not death.<\/p>\n

For the climax, he wanted Dargelos to be suspended in midair. Kelly was in his forties, in good shape and had done trapeze work a decade earlier while impersonating the drag artist Barbette. He hopped back on with perhaps a touch of overconfidence and, while executing a \u201cmonkey roll into ankle drop,\u201d took the coach\u2019s advice to turn in his feet without a second thought. He slipped into freefall and landed on the back of his neck.<\/p>\n

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The illustrations draw connections between the accident and the drama of Caravaggio\u2019s paintings. Photo: Fred Voon for Observer<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Looking back, Kelly questions his compulsion to chase danger. \u201cDoes being a performer always have to hinge on some point of extreme trial,\u201d he muses on one panel. \u201cI\u2019m called by madness, and I can\u2019t explain it.\u201d And yet, in a monograph published a year before the accident, he wrote, \u201cI\u2019ve always found physically demanding stage work to be a sure way of getting to the meat of a character.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kelly\u2019s words and images take us through the shocking fall, the gym \u201csilent with alarm and recognition,\u201d the dreadful night at the hospital, no water, no painkillers and the sensations of his mind racing and his body fading. Through his supine perspective, we see the trapeze bar and ropes hanging overhead and the hospital ceiling that looks like a \u201cdermabraised moon.\u201d<\/p>\n

Heightened emotions bleed into hallucinations of Caravaggio works. The scene of doctors inspecting Kelly morphs into The Incredulity of Saint Thomas<\/i>, where apostles examine a wound on Christ. Elsewhere, he becomes the severed head of Goliath in David\u2019s hand, or Saint Matthew visited by an angel of inspiration. Some spreads drift into Kelly\u2019s meandering mindscapes\u2026 climbing Jack\u2019s beanstalk, pondering the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus, picturing the tallies of days fluttering like the sparks of a bonfire.<\/p>\n

The MRI, which Kelly likens to chiaroscuro, revealed fractures in the C4 and C6 vertebrae. Fortunately, he suffered no brain damage, required no surgery and was discharged with a neck brace and his mortality intact. \u201cI came this close to being a quadriplegic,\u201d he says. \u201cIt was a year before I felt like I was really back in my body.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Some panels drift into Kelly\u2019s meandering mindscapes. Photo: Fred Voon for Observer<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cA Friend Gave Me a Book\u201d is a long-simmering work that has had multiple incarnations. During a 2006-2007 fellowship in Rome, Kelly stepped into the world of Caravaggio\u2019s paintings through photography and videography. In 2011, he performed The Escape Artist<\/i> at PS122, now Performance Space New York, speaking and singing about the ordeal against a three-channel video backdrop. The current set of illustrated panels began as storyboards he developed during summer residencies, which he then fleshed out in his apartment during COVID and completed in 2025 at a PS122 Gallery residency in the same building where The Escape Artist<\/i> premiered.<\/p>\n

Kelly continues to live with the impact of the trapeze accident, physically and psychologically. \u201cWe hold our histories in our bodies,\u201d he says. \u201cEven at this point, I can\u2019t fathom that it actually happened.\u201d Perhaps his reflections suggest that the life of an artist is Caravaggesque, that the calling leads them to inextricable extremes of ecstasy and despair. Art giveth and art taketh away.<\/p>\n

2026 is turning out to be a busy year for Kelly. On February 12, he and musical collaborator Carol Lipnik<\/a> will activate the exhibition, turning poetry into song and visuals into performance. He is also set to star in the play Bughouse<\/i>, about \u201coutsider artist\u201d Henry Darger<\/a>, and flex his countertenor pipes in the chamber opera Barcelona, Map of Shadows<\/i>. He will record new music with his band Rimbaud Hattie, has an upcoming residency in Venice and is planning a new memoir.<\/p>\n

Will he be making art to the bitter end? \u201cI\u2019ve no choice,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m an artist.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/b>A Friend Gave Me a Book<\/b><\/a>\u201d is at PPOW through February 21. <\/b>Bughouse<\/i><\/b><\/a> will runs at the Vineyard Theatre from February 18 through March 29.<\/b><\/p>\n

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Kelly says the incident is a \u201crupture\u201d whose impact will stay with him for the rest of his life. Photo: Fred Voon for Observer<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

More Arts Interviews<\/b><\/h3>\n

\t\t\t\t\"John<\/p><\/div>\n