The miracle of both Wilderness and The American Night by Jim Morrison arrived just around the time I began to write poetry. I have always said that Jim Morrison’s poetry is far more significant than most people realize. The poems in both books are extraordinary and have been life changing for me.
8/30/2023
Early on in 1989-92 (with Crayon and Dirty Pictures) I began to attempt to incorporate elements of my poetry into the lyric content of the music with our bands. By the time we started to work on The Spiritworld in 1993 and later Spectral Arts and Project Morning Star. I began to use all of the poetry as the lyric content, making the transistion from attempting to write traditional lyrics for any given song. Poetry has always been foundational to what I do, I am a self taught painter and an “outsider artist" and the art that took shape in the early years for me was often oriented to a specific poem and meant to illustrate some elements of it.
6/17/2023
I joined XYZ Gallery back in 1993-it is a local art space that is run by students and the community here at Virginia Tech. I was able to create my first shows combining painting, poetry and music at the Gallery when it would have been almost impossible to try it anywhere else. XYZ remains consistently one of the only galleries around Western Virginia to provide a space for local Artists, Musicians and Poets to share work. The Gallery is inclusive and has given me and the bands I have been a part of a place to call home for 30 years now.
8/21/2019
Painted cover for Midnight Poems 1994 from the PEOD Archive
https://www.amazon.com/stores/T.-Byron-Kelly/author/B002BRDGLA
