An Artist Portfolio – Kellie Jo Close

Kellie Jo Close, JoJo Doll artist, works in several other mediums too. This is her partial artist portfolio. Kellie works on commission, so if you’re looking for something unique, contact her.

Painting of a male's crossed legs. You can't see upward past his chest. He is sitting in a brown chair behind a yellow end table, holding a phone, wearing a bracelet, and not paying attention to anything else.
5 different types of yarn stacked one on the other. Realistic textures.
Consists of a canvas, square of plywood and yarn. Red paint covers the entire piece, but it is covered in most places with yarn of many colors. Some of the yarn hangs freely from the canvas.
A person with a sheet over him (like a Halloween ghost costume), sits in a chair. The sheet covers the person in entirety and most of the chair. The floor is solid, but the wall and stained glass window is rather wonky, like in a fun house perhaps.
Hands with caves and structures that mirror the musculature of the hands. The village was created by ancient Puebloans, aka Anasazi in the Four Corners area of the United States. The Wendigo, an evil spirit originating from the folklore of Plains and Great Lakes Natives as well as some First Nations, is also depicted. I used the Wendigo because archeologists theorize Ancient Puebloans cannibalized some enemy soldiers before vacating the caves forever. The Wendigo possesses people, forcing them to cannibalize others.
Portrait of elderly woman wearing glasses. There are jigsaw puzzle pieces, both assembled and unassembled, at the bottom of the page, giving the illusion that the portrait is a jugsaw puzzle.
A doll, about 10 inches tall, has two buns in her bright orange hair, held together with toothpick pencils and a wire hair decoration. She wears a voodoo doll as a pendant around her neck and bead bracelets around her wrists. She's wearing a blue short dress and green ballet-type green shoes..
Drawing of a portion of a hacksaw. You can see the handle and the metal mechanism that holds the blade.
Sheer white curtains in front of a window. If you look through the sheers, you can see parts of the mechanics of the window and wooden frame. .
The head of a black-eyed woman. Her skin is cream and yellowish. She wears a frown and the corners of her mouth turn down. She has blue hair, a blue shirt, and the space behind her is bright orange. The brush strokes are exaggerated, pointed and rough.
This doll represents the spirit of the forest and is designed to be energetically helpful to its owner. Inside the doll (head, chest, and belly) are the gemstones clear quartz, unakite, and amethyst. Essential oils, sweet birch and spruce, are supplied for the aromatherapy medallion hanging from the walking stick (end of white yarn). She has multicolored, 5-strand braided hair, a black dress with green top, brown short cape cute boots and fishnets over leggings.
oil painting depicting two solid bricks on a garage floor by a broken garage door.
Water takes over a mausoleum in a swamp. The water is dark and still, reflecting the red doors of the stone buildings and the giant trees in the background. One of the red doors is warped and off the hinges while another is missing completely. Drawn with colored pencil and oil pastel.
Nude woman with strange markings on her body sits on a flying carpet. She puts on a fake, exaggerated smile and her eyes may be a bit wild. Stemming from her chest are two other, less distinct, faces that represent bipolar disorder. The background is scratchy, lighter on the left than on the right.
8 inch doll with voodoo doll shape wearing pink and white dress with her hair (black, white, pink) done up in a messy bun

Artist Bio

Kellie Jo Close has always been an artist, sometimes learning from a teacher, but mostly teaching herself. She won a Scholastic Gold Key for art before high school graduation. Soon after, Kellie joined the Army and was appointed to paint a battalion mural with three other soldiers. Singled out later, she painted the white and blue crests of the 501st Forward Support Battalion to be used during parades and displayed at battalion headquarters. As a stay-at-home mother, Kellie brought creativity into her children’s lives while creating artwork for herself, too. Now she works mostly on the JoJo Dolls that she loves, but sometimes she throws something different into the mix. She currently takes fine art classes at Ivy Tech Community College and plans to graduate with an art therapy master’s degree from Herron School of Art at IUPUI.