Hi! I’m Kelledy. Loving Mama. Artist. Strategist & Project Management Expert.
Explosive passion doesn’t fit well in boxes, but here goes:
Mask Mandala of over 300 masks I made for essential workers in March 2020.
Due to the pandemic, it was impossible to order fabric or elastic. I developed a pattern and made masks out of my leftover cotton quilting fabric and cut swimsuit spandex to make ties.
How I told my husband I was pregnant, circa 2015.
The Opening of Sky and Sea Multi-Media Fashion Performance: Written, directed and all fashions designed and sewn by Kelledy Francis & Brooke Conrad.
The Opening: Flight Attendant giving instructions.
The Opening: The Flight Attendant attempts to free the Horizon.
The Opening: White Pearl / Black Pearl.
The Opening set design: Projections on the ceiling and sculptures that drop down as we move from the sky to the sea.
The finale: The Opening
My daughter had a dream about a "Patchwork Cheetah, so we made it come to life.
ROAR!
My daughter's drawing inspired by her dream.
Sculpted head with red rose in the mouth, just like the vision.
Challenge to build a Garfield costume starting at 5AM on Oct 31 - will it be ready for 5PM trick or treat?
Mission accomplished.
What makes your heartbeat? Performance about the future of wearable technology.
When I dreamt of autumn...
Post-Apocalyptic Fashion Performance: My characters getting ready "backstage" in the River Arts District industrial area. Show written, directed & all costumes designed by Kelledy, Brooke Conrad & Paul Olszewski. Asheville, NC.
"The Wind" Scene: Post-Apocalyptic Performance.
Blast from the past: Runway walk. We did it!
Just another night at a life drawing sesh.
Four Seasons Fashion Performance at Orlando Museum of Art; Designed and built the costumes and directed the performance.
Inspired by summer.
Wearing Summer.
Wearing Winter.
Collage of Winter fashion sketch.
Love this crisp fall frock.
Send me Love Letters: a handmade card about magic I experienced on a trip to India.
Send Me Love Letters: Back and front of hand painted card deck.
Hardcore Grace: A guerilla fashion performance by Kelledy, Brooke Conrad & Paul Olszewski. Asheville, NC.
A curious crowd gathered.
Roaring motorbikes and lots of leather and rose petals (living up to the name of Hardcore Grace)
Initial pinning for Gudetama Costume, made for 8-year old daughter who is fascinated by the idea of a lazy egg.
Makin' the bacon.
Gudetama: The Lazy Egg.
Lazy Egg (Poser style)
Titty Puppet Show: a Feminist Performance about the female body and entertainment .
Random sketchbook drawing from a diner, possibly watching the show.
Baggage Claim: A handmade suitcase with over 300 hours of stitching where I meditated on my own baggage.
Side view of Baggage Claim.
The Huvard House: I was honored to be awarded the Griffin Award for Historic Restoration from the Preservation Society of Asheville & Buncombe County for transforming a dilapidated 1926 home into a stunning, restored masterpiece.
Decorating and doing details for this magnificent historic home was one of the most exciting projects of my life.
Fully restored bathroom tile and 1920s wallpaper at the Huvard House. I learned how to apply thin 100 year-old wallpaper using wheat paste and a delicate hand.
Can you believe I found the green replacement tiles at an architectural salvage? This was a meticulous phase of the work.
The beauty and graceful arches of the Huvard House. I hand-sculpted the plaster texture tree motif on the walls to match the 1920s original design.
Fully restored light fixture and 1920s tile fireplace at the Huvard House.
The Huvard House - a 4-year, multi-phased project: Side view of the outdoor dining area and balcony, fully restored.
Random Sketch while at Driver's School.
"Bigness" - Self-Portrait doll of me at 10 years old: Spilling out of my guts is a story about watching my dad die of alcoholism.
Detail from my short story "Bigness"
Send me Love Letters: A feminist performance about women and sexuality.
From Nature: A digital study series in my sketchbook where I prepare myself for conversations with my daughter about the birds and the bees.
Sewing a paper flower.
Paper bouquet I made with secret messages of love hidden throughout.
Paper bouquet really saves on Trader Joe's cut flower budget when planning a wedding.
Custom costumes: When my daughter was obsessed with The Wizard of Oz and we had to become it, cornfield and all.
My tiny person modeling as Glinda. Handmade hat, gown and wand.
Back of the dress with handsewn details and handmade fabric covered buttons.
Sometimes I just paint a fashion study real quick.
Custom costumes for Twelfth Night set in the 1940s at NC Stage Company.
I loved this dress and hat I designed and built for Olivia of Twelfth Night in 1940s Hollywood.
Historic Restoration of the Maxwell Street Mill house, a 1950s relic in Western NC. This is the before photo.
Layers revealed.
With fresh siding and no stoop...yet.
Found her in the crawl space while running plumbing. I swear she spoke to me.
Final of the Maxwell Mill House. I designed, managed and provided 6 months blood, sweat & tears to bring this mid-century beauty back to life.
A love letter display I left for the owners of Maxwell Mill House - complete with magazines I found in the attic, that probably belonged to the original homeowners.
Transfigurations Costume: A peacock morphs into a princess. Goal: to wow a room of families.
Transformation moment.
Because inside every princess is a fierce peacock.
Acrylic painting of my daughter who dreams of riding Nessie. A preliminary illustration for a costume.
My daughter living her Nessie dream.
Drawing from Life: People waiting.
Gallery Show: "Of the Sky". A collection of gowns inspired by birds, clouds, and sunsets.
Oh and the color of the deep night. And space. And airplanes! I love the sky as muse.
From Of the Sky collection to the Academy Awards Red Carpet! Custom dress for client actor Erika Barrett
Of the Sky: Nest waistband for Erika Barrett.
Cutting out all the tiny things for my wedding invites so that each one (all 300) are handmade.
Our wedding theme was Quilted Together.
I love the look of this stack of invitations with all the luscious thread.
Custom jacket for my husband, circa 2004, when he still looked like a baby.
Custom jacket made with the early jitters of romance and intense love.
From the time I wove trash bags into a plastic fabric. Can you recognize a Target bag? How about Footlocker?
The trash bag weaving just keeps coming.
Final product: My woven trash bag fabric made into a fancy bag- totally meta.
Sewing the head for my daughter's "Campy Fire" costume, inspired by the fire lizard from Frozen. Her dream was to act this out in the forest behind our house.
The "Campy Fire" forest production, complete with simulated smoke.
Built myself a hand sewn tomb. Because for a while I felt trapped in sewing.
For our wedding, Jon Claude and I asked all the participants to send in a piece of silk. Then I made a wedding gown out of them.
The time when I cut out hundreds of 1-inch silk pieces that were given to me by people invited to our wedding.
100s of hours of meditation on love.
The texture still gets me.
It felt magic to make this.
Custom buttons made of the silk from significant friends and family.
Detail of my wedding gown bodice, in progress.
Detail of the painted silk lining for my wedding dress. I really care about inside and out.
A final of the dress in a gorgeous room.
A life drawing from 1996 when my grandmother was still on earth. If I can live with even half the creative force she lived, I've done well.
Just came to mind, felt sassy.
Big feelings in my sketchbook.
Barry the handyman. He really wanted to be drawn.
Sometimes I make intricate cards for people I love. Paper and stitches.
Watercolor design for an intricate card.
My daughter drew this and then we made it into handmade Valentines to learn about how to make a production line.
Valentine's learning about scaling your concept so the whole class gets your art.
Handmade matching Valentine's envelopes.
Handsewing detail from custom Frozen jacket for my daughter.
The inside of the coat is just as important as the outside.
Detail of the handmade coat & frog closures.
Our spin on Frozen.
Hand woven bag made of all the strips of cotton I meticulously dyed attempting to capture every color of the rainbow. Lots of labor involved here, just because.
The time when my 3 year old lost her lion stuffy in Downtown, Asheville, and we created a reward-driven marketing campaign to get the stuffy back.
Terry Pie, the lion stuffy, was actually found in a red double-decker bus. I couldn't make this up. Let's pay attention because there is magic all around us!
Custom gown for a client who had a very fancy RenFaire ball to attend.
Detail of front of costume.
Kelledy Shop! The time when I had a storefront and made clothes.
Fashion example from my Hearts & Sleeves Collection at Kelledy Shop
Another gown from Hearts & Sleeves.
From the finale of the Hearts & Sleeves performance that I wrote and directed (and designed and built the dresses.)
My friend Quincey live modeled for me when we were in high school in the 90s. We since lost her to cancer. I still love this drawing of her confidence.
A story sculpture garden I made in Orlando, FL, where a narrative unfolded over time for my neighbors. This is the insemination period.
Incubation.
And then she blooms...
And eventually walks down the street.
My best friend's husband Ryan was dying of cancer. There she is comforting him while I sketch their love and his final moments.
From my best wishes series: Meditations for my friends who were dealing with cancer.
Sketch of my friend's baby, Harper.
Shoes for baby Harper, inspired by my time with his parents in India, where he was conceived.
Tiny gold shoes.
A blessing band for Harper and family.
Detail of blessing band.
I made this letter for my former supervisor at my job, because she was influential to me in becoming a better leader and person. She is really wise.
And she loves to garden so inside the handmade envelope was this painting.
More gifts for special people.
Barry the handyman who loves to model for me. He loves art.
A life drawing of my sister, actually kind of exposed.
Second skin costume.
A lasagna cake I made for my daughter's Garfield Trivia birthday party. I used cocoa Krispies for the meat.
Hula performer costumes.
The time I made a yearbook and trading cards for our pet chicks.
Bionic Heart book, exterior.
Bionic Heart, with stills from my animation: Computer Bug Love Virus.
Just a guy in a waiting room who was watching TV.
Cards for a playing card game I created about dog breeds.
My family playing the card game with me. It was fun and the logic worked!
Birthday invite for my mom's 80th, hand-drawn as the Queen of Diamonds.