April 7, 1975 — July 8, 2024
Artist, filmmaker, designer, and beloved friend and daughter Kelly Bigelow Becerra, age 49, passed away in the company of loved ones at her home in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Kelly was raised in Jonesville, Michigan where she formed her lifelong ability to sift through life and find beauty, courage, and meaning in situations both light and heavy.
An alumna of the Cleveland Institute of Art and a graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Kelly, affectionately known as Artstar Kelly, lived a life fully immersed in art. Kelly remains well-respected for her bold ideas, artistic vision, skill, and achievements, her advocacy for the arts, arts education, and quality design. She was an accomplished visual artist, filmmaker, and designer.
Kelly was an early digital art pioneer of scanography, working with flatbed scanners to fully scan classmates and family members and large-scale objects like a toy riding horse, trees, her grandmother’s china cabinet, and farm buildings and equipment, to create thought provoking work. Her work used the visual language of her upbringing, appearing quilt-like and pastoral while depicting harsh realities at the same time. Her work has been shown and collected by significant institutions such as the Aldrich Museum and Eastern Connecticut State University.
She was a multiple award-winning filmmaker, along with her film partner, Roland Becerra. Their films were shown in festivals worldwide, including at Cannes and as an official selection of The Sundance Film Festival.
Kelly also created design and branding for the City of New Haven, including the iconic Made in New Haven stamp, as well as for local business improvement projects in Bridgeport.
Throughout her life and career, she loved teaching and mentoring art students in her hometown of Jonesville, as well as other artists, creatives, and frankly, anyone who would listen, helping them see beauty, art, and design in the world around them. When Jonesville needed a long-term substitute art teacher, Kelly paused her life on the East Coast to return to Jonesville to teach the students of her alma mater. Her students thrived as her passion and enthusiasm for art helped them to recognize their own potential and meet the high standards that she had set for them. Kelly continued to mentor Jonesville students via emails, phone calls, and Zoom meetings long after she returned to Connecticut, providing advice for those going into the fields of art or film, even as she struggled with symptoms from her cancer. Kelly has left plans to continue to inspire and support young artists in Jonesville.
Kelly resided at Read’s ArtSpace in downtown Bridgeport, Connecticut where she could be seen roller skating in its hallways. She was a founding resident of Read’s ArtSpace and her personality and guidance have shaped both its artist community and building history. Prior to that, she lived in Wooster Square in New Haven where she loved to sit in the park among the cherry blossoms.
Kelly was a bright light, a loving and outgoing person who had a way of making everyone around her feel like the most important person in her orbit. She leaves behind so many who adored her and were warmed by the light of which she was made.
She is mourned by her dear mother, Donna Bigelow, her beloved art teacher and mentor who was the “single biggest influence of her life,” John Loveless; her husband and film partner, Roland Becerra; her partner and caregiver, Jackrabbit Pollock; her best friend, chosen family, and caregiver, Erin McDonough; and many more friends and family near and far. She was predeceased by her beloved standard poodle, Lucian, and will be laid to rest beside him at the Sunset View Cemetery in Jonesville, Michigan.
A celebration of life for Kelly will be held on November 9, 2024, at Sunset View Cemetery in Jonesville, Michigan at 2:00 p.m.
A New England memorial service for Kelly’s gang will be held on September 21, 2024, at Wooster Square Park in New Haven, Connecticut at 11:00 a.m.
To honor Kelly’s memory, please make donations to her GoFundMe campaign (https://www.gofundme.com/f/t46bz-kelly-needs-your-help) which will help preserve her art for future generations and support the art education of the students in the Jonesville School District.