ABOUT

BIO

Adrienne Gelardi started life as a doodler and appreciator of bright colors, fuzzy animals, and cartoons. She grew up being influenced by her Michigan surroundings and spent time visiting art fairs and seeing shows in vibrant Southeastern Michigan cities like Plymouth, Ann Arbor and Detroit.

In addition to art, Adrienne developed quite an appreciation for stand up comedy and horror movies in her formative years. Being very inspired by comedy, animation, and art it was a natural fit for her to pursue Traditional Animation at Columbia College Chicago.

Using skills she learned in college, she began doing graphic design professionally (as there wasn’t a future in the dwindling art form of traditional animation). She has designed everything from car wraps and decals for small businesses to cups and food service products for SOLO® Cup Company. She left her career as a Production Artist and Print Pre-Press specialist in 2018 to become a full time painter!

Adrienne has set her sights high above corporate servitude, which is why she said goodbye to her safety net. She believes life should be lived passionately, and to her that means pursuing a career as a full time painter and illustrator of her own works (and well, it also means snuggling a lot of cats and drinking a lot of Michigan Craft Beer with friends and family).

In 2019 Adrienne worked with business partner Amanda Leksche to launch a new paint and sip company in Lansing called Paint Your Poison. Then 2020 had other ideas, both good and bad. The COVID19 pandemic forced Paint Your Poison to re-evaluate it’s operations and Adrienne ultimately left to focus on her mural work!

In 2022 Adrienne married artist Tod Parkhill, and they currently reside in East Lansing, MI with their 3 cats and bonus child. In 2023 she launched Lovely Junk LLC with Tod. She has been responsible for building 3 entire businesses from the ground up including building entire websites, social media marketing, and all the extra bureaucratic things that go along with it. On top of managing her own business and creating works of art, she has become fluent in Square, Squarespace, and WordPress – she does IT ALL.

Adrienne has painted multiple public murals across the state of Michigan including 8 (and counting) at Potter Park Zoo in Lansing. A map of her public murals can be seen here. She is known for painting doors and garage doors for private homes from Ludington to Detroit. Adrienne has painted doors as far south as Huron, Ohio.

Adrienne is truly inspired by a broad range of artists and styles. She has personally been creating original works featuring subject matter ranging from foodie pop art and cute animals to darker art including provocative themes and evil creatures. She describes her art as a ridiculous mixture of Lisa Frank and H.R. Giger.