Society Spy: Who’s Who

Kelly Gale Amen

“For me, the excitement comes from working with surprising and playful hues that represent an unusual juxtaposition. If you stick with the laws of nature -light, the colors of the earth – rather than someone else’s rules, you can never go wrong.” These words, thoughts and emotions come from the heart, soul and designing genius of Kelly Gale Amen.

Kelly Amen cannot be described or labeled by any one single title, sentence, and not even a lengthy dissertation. Yes, he is a world-renowned artist, a designer, a decorator of life, yet none of these inscriptions truly depict the man, the soul, the person behind the curiously handsome face and the most heartwarming smile. Those who know Kelly, love and adore him. Those who do not, love and marvel at what he can create.

Bedroom at The Compound

Amen does not design interiors. He creates a lifestyle, a certain look and feel to a surrounding, which culminates in an area design that leaves a home and its owner at an all-high appreciation of beauty, style and comfort.

Houston, Texas based, highly noted and reveled interior designer Kelly Amen studied interior design at the University of Oklahoma. However, such talent, artistic drive and creativity cannot be acquired from books alone. It comes from the heart and soul, begins early and never stops to grow and flourish. “I can’t remember when I wasn’t arranging and rearranging” Kelly recalls.

In 1974, Amen established his own design studio, and the rest is history. Amen’s clients – local, national and on an international scale – appreciate and seek his penchant for bold color, experimentation, artistic elegance and his uniquely unexpected elements of design.

Bronze Cast Chair

“It would be of most interest and delight to be totally involved in the process of interior space and it’s creative form of art,” he says, “art as visual and the exchange of the crafts/construction/art and most of all the personal one-on-one transfer of creative energy… one without the other is void of flow.”

Volumes can be and in fact have been written on the designing style of Amen. Honors, accolades and recognition have been bestowed via many medias. Mr. Amen was the featured designer in Traditional Home’s first major design book, entitled Signature Style. Amen’s spectacular home and grounds, known as “The Compound” (more on The Compound later) was also featured in a program entitled Extreme Homes, on the Home and Garden Television Network (HGTV). For those of you who missed it, despair not. It will air again in the fall 2000.

Triple Section Bench

The amazing Amen, however, does not rest on his interior designing laurels. He has become a furniture designer extraordinare. One cup of Kelly’s creative juices, and a successful relationship between functionality and art was born. Presenting…cast metal furniture.

Kelly decided that the precise furniture, individual, heavy and regal, that his clients desired simply did not exist, thus he set about designing and casting his own creations. Since that prototype, Kelly has developed a collection of indoor/outdoor “furniture as sculpture.” The popularity became immediately evident, as galleries and museums in San Francisco, Boca Raton, Miami, Atlanta and Houston clamored to be the first to display these original works of furniture art.

“I am of interest to move forward with the cast furniture of bronze, iron or aluminum and enjoy this part of my creative endeavors as I enter the eleventh year of this process” Kelly quotes. Locally, Houstonians can feast their eyes on Amen’s furniture masterpieces at the Museum of Natural Science, where permanently displayed are his three triple bronze benches with fossil stone tops. As well, his furniture provides seating in the Weiss Energy Hall. Rest of the world can preview some of his extraordinary furniture creations on his website, and of course at the famed Compound.

The Compound dining room

Focusing on The Compound, well, it is certainly deserving of both portrayals. It is indeed famed. Anyone who has visited it, but if one time only, was without a doubt left with an anamnesis of artistic awakening of the senses and appreciation of nature and everyday mortal living combined. With a cloud of fantasy and an aura of profound discovery of harmony the earthly and whimsical elements are brought together in perfect harmony under one roof.

As for The Compound, one may take the name as self-explanatory. But is it? Yes, The Compound is in fact Kelly Amen’s residence combination studio. It is however a living, breathing and pulsating testament to what Kelly has accomplished artistically, his taste, direction of design and overall mood of what he can bring forth out of a simple interior space.

From artist’s loft to patio

The peculiar if not idiosyncratic habitat is filled not only with Kelly’s personal works of design, but also with such works of art as those of David Roller Wilson, John Palmer, Shel Hershorn, Randy Twaddle, Claire Ankenman, Michael Tracy, Diane Arbus, Dewitt Godfry, Nall and Barbara Jones to name-drop but a few. After taking but a step or two into The Compound, it is easy to understand why anyone would choose Amen as the designer of their surroundings.

The Compound thus projects itself as a statement of what Kelly Amen, the designer has to offer, as Kelly the artist, Kelly the furniture guru and Kelly, the individual. It provides a perfect setting, background and display of his interior design talent propensity as well as line of cast metal furniture designs. Case in point, his splendid dining-room table is positioned on a bronze base; with elegant tapered legs and a glass, which bears its intricate dovetail assembly. Because of its unusual height of 27 inches, it can certainly function as a parlor table.

Fire, Kelly’s beloved Dalmatian

In the Zen-like outdoor and swimming pool area and grounds, a regal cast-bronze chair is positioned in the garden, and surrounded by azaleas and towering bamboo. Throne-like, the chair features a wide body, generous proportion, tapered legs and is topped by a bronze drape across the sides and front. Like the dining-room table, the chair has been left with the pitting intact, so the process of its creation is visible and can be admired.

Ultimately, Amen hopes that his collectors will view his pieces as heirlooms, as they are so unique from the present throwaway manufacturing mentality. “Bronze, iron and aluminum are forever,” he says, “and this furniture will be here long after we’re gone”.

Kelly Amen’s internationally acclaimed status, fame and recognition certainly afford him much glamour and what could be described as a jet-set life style. However, to classify him strictly in that category would be a gross injustice. His essence, sensitivity and spirit extend far and beyond his artistic endeavors. Amen uses his talent and resources to reach out and help the ones who can’t help themselves.

He tirelessly and quietly, without need for accolades nor praise, actively participates in civic, charitable and fundraising activities, not just with his time and money but with his artistic creations.

Kelly Gale Amen

Whereas the recipients of his altruism and goodwill are many, he especially focuses his efforts, attention and support to the Texas Children Cancer Center, AIDS Foundation of Houston and the American Society of Interior Designers. His dedication, benevolence and generosity to the many causes is touching, heartwarming and, needless to say, greatly appreciated by so many.

Kelly theorizes his existence and outlook on life in that…