BLOK4 ARTISTS

Kelly’s body of work expresses a lifelong passion for all things Sci-Fi, 

Horror, Fantasy and Superhero. 

“I’m  an original Monster kid,” he says. “At bedtime, I would hide under the  sheets with my flashlight and a copy of “Famous Monsters“ or “Starlog,”  fueling my imagination with ideas and images.”

Fostering  those budding inspirations into a career preserving cinematic history,  Kelly specializes in the restoration/ presentation of film and  television props and costumes. In this way, he feels he is able to “give  back“ what pop-culture gave to him, preserving that cinematic legacy  for future Monster kids to enjoy.   

The  bulk of his restoration work has included items from the sixties,  seventies and eighties. Some of his proudest accomplishments include the  restoration and display of the “hero” mermaid tail from the Tom Hanks  hit “Splash”; Michelle Pfeiffer’s Catwoman costume from  “Batman  Returns“ (1992); Michael Keaton’s suit and cowl from “Batman” (1989);  the bat puppet featured in the horror classic “Fright Night“ (1985); and  a set of “otherworldly” alien costumes worn by children during the end  sequence of Steven Spielberg‘s “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”  (1977).

Kelly also specializes in the design and fabrication of 1:1 scale life-size themed statues and environments. 

Known  as a jack-of-all-trades to his peers, Kelly excels at sculpting,  painting, hair laying, costume fabrication and fabric manipulation. He  is adept at creating custom “body language forms” that reference a  character’s iconic pose/image from TV and film. He is also highly  skilled at mimicking a variety of textures/ structures in lightweight  materials to create bases and environments that enhance the drama and  visual impact of his statues.

Some  of his 1:1 scale highlights include a statue of Boris Karloff as  Frankenstein’s monster, accompanied by a re-creation of part of the  Universal back lot from the creature’s cinematic debut; Claude Rains’  “Invisible Man”; the Martian From the 1953 classic “War of the Worlds”;  the creature from “Return of the Fly“; and a life-size re-creation of  the Gorgon Medusa, based on the stop-motion puppet created by Ray  Harryhausen for the fan favorite “Clash of the Titans”(1981).

Kelly’s  work can be seen at The Prop Store of London and Los Angeles, American  Heritage Auction House, Julien’s Auction House, The Hero Prop exhibit in  Las Vegas, Icons of Darkness in Hollywood and the Hollywood Museum.

Kelly  is excited to be working with the talented, seasoned artists at Blok4  and all the new opportunities this partnership presents.