About Kelye Kneeland

Teacher, Artist, Explorer

Kelye Kneeland has worked for 29 years as an elementary school teacher. Her years of work, travel, and volunteering in Boston, West Africa, the Philippines, China, Japan, France and India have given her a deep appreciation of people and different cultures. The challenges they face, and the character qualities they are imbued with, help them to achieve greatness. In her early years, she created over thirty pointillism portraits. In her 23rd year of teaching, a boy who hated to write, had his interest in writing sparked when Kelye let him use her old college typewriter. It was an epiphany. In the years that followed, she filled her classroom with typewriters. Her students loved using them for writing, and her own interest in collecting typewriters and using them to create art, took off.

Kelye sitting beside the River Seine in Paris with one of her favorite typewriters.

Kelye uses vintage typewriters from various parts of the world, to create portraits of cultural icons and everyday people by using letters, numbers, and symbols. Kelye is a self- taught artist who delights in experimentation and discovering new ways of doing things. She has created over 80 portraits of people. All of whom have shaped history in various ways through politics, the law, music, art, literature, and human and civil rights. The legacy of her subject’s lives is highlighted by the words that Kelye has typed in the background of her many portraits. These words include lyrics, quotes and famous passages of their writing. Kelye is inspired by the lives of her subjects, and hopes to preserve their legacy in part through typing their portraits.

Her 3 primary typewriters for use in her work are:

For additional detail she uses:

She Also uses ribbons in various states of wear for shading.

Persons interested in purchasing artist prints may contact her at her contact page. Due to the time required she does not accept commission requests.

For information about past and future exhibitions, her typewriters and other appearances, visit her media page.