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All work © Copyright Alessandra Kelley
 Upriver |
"Upriver" was inspired by an incident in 1992. The Michigan Avenue bridge was undergoing repairs, and on Sunday, 20th September it abruptly shot open (catapulting a small crane onto a thankfully deserted street) and fell into its counterweight pit. The normally horizontal street was stuck vertical for some months, giving a surreal appearance to the streetscape. I was attending school at the Art Institute, just down the street, at the time. The image of the world turned sideways and confrontational stuck with me. Eventually it inspired this inverted waterfall, which is a view, more or less, of the State Street Bridge from just west of the Michigan Avenue Bridge. The prominent building on the left of the picture is the R R Donnelley Building, and at the right is Marina City. |
 Midnight in the Garden of Science and Industry |
The Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago was originally the Palace of Fine Arts in the World Columbian Exposition of 1893. The only surviving structure, it now anchors the enormous and beautiful Jackson park, site of the former fairgrounds. The wonderful and odd detritus of the past, even in so young a city as Chicago, fascinates me. I also love the moodiness of the museum at night. |
 The Half-Finished Thing Under the El Tracks |
One very quiet February morning on Franklin Street under the El Tracks I was caught in a sudden blizzard, and suddenly imagined a host of riders emerging from the white and clattering towards Wolf Point (on the Chicago River) in a Chicago version of the Lupercalia ritual. |
 Chi-Fi, a pulp spoof |
This painting was commissioned by the Chicago in 2012 Worldcon bid, as a Chicago-themed imitation of an old-fashioned pulp magazine cover. It was the second of two covers I was commissioned to do (see below). I was given freedom to develop the theme as I liked, and chose to go with a giant flaming cow, King Kong-style climbing the Carbide and Carbon Building -- a gorgeous Art Deco landmark from 1929, currently the Hard Rock Hotel -- while in the foreground a woman steadies a gun on it from a Curtiss JN-4D "Jenny", a famous World War I-era biplane in the collection of the Museum of Science and Industry. The cow is of course a reference to the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. In the background you can see the Mather Tower, now called the Lincoln Tower Building, which is another beautiful Art Deco skyscraper from 1928. By triangulating between the two buildings you can work out that the plane is flying straight up Michigan Avenue. The published cover included the title: "CHI-FI" and the legend: "Inside: SPICY McCORMICK TALES: 'Don't Fear the Reaper'", two more Chicago references for those who are keeping count. Explanatory Note: Every year organizations of science fiction fans vie for the right to host the World Science Fiction Convention in their city. Attendees at this year's World Science Fiction Convention vote for the city of their choice for the convention in two years' time. The Chicago in 2012 bid had the theme of Chicago and the pulps. They commissioned Chicago-area science fiction writers to pen short, humorous pulp stories, and local illustrators to create mock covers. I have ties to the science fiction community through my husband, Richard Garfinkle, a science fiction author. |
 Multiversity of Chicago, a pulp spoof |
This was the first of two Chicago-themed pulp-magazine-style covers I was commissioned to do by the Chicago in 2012 World Science Fiction Convention (see above). This one has a noir detective theme with overtones of H.P. Lovecraft. It's set on the campus of the University of Chicago, at the famous Hull Gate near the biology laboratories. The hieroglyphs on the woman's coat spell out various comments on the nature of the universe in accord with H.P. Lovecraft's, for want of a better word, philosophy. A very tight deadline meant I had to paint this with acrylics, rather than my more common medium of egg tempera. |
