Carolyn Mary Kleefeld


Carolyn Mary Kleefeld is an American author, poet, and visual artist. She is the author of twenty books, has a line of fine art cards, and has had numerous gallery and museum awards and exhibitions between 1981 and the present, in New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and other major cities.

Biography

Early life

Kleefeld was born in Catford, England, and moved to Southern California at age four, growing up in Santa Monica and Beverly Hills, with a later move to Malibu. She studied art and psychology at UCLA. She currently lives in Big Sur, California.
Kleefeld is also known by her married name, Caroyln Campagna Kleefeld. On Valentine’s Day 2017, she wed David Campagna. Campagna died three weeks later from a long-term illness.

Career

Carolyn Mary Kleefeld is the author of twenty books, some of which are used as inspirational texts in universities and healing centers. Over the past two decades, she has created an extensive and diverse body of paintings and drawings, ranging in style from romantic figurative to abstract. Her art is featured internationally in galleries, museums, private collections, and multimedia presentations.
Kleefeld is also considered to be one of the leading thinkers in the Consciousness movement; she was interviewed for Mavericks of the Mind—a notable collection of interviews by David Jay Brown and Rebecca Novick, that also includes Terence McKenna, Allen Ginsberg, Timothy Leary, Laura Huxley, and others—and she appeared on panel discussions with some of the leaders in this movement, and other notable experts on the expansion and exploration of consciousness, at UCLA in 1995 and the University of California, Santa Cruz in 1993.

Poetry and writings

Kleefeld's writings include poetry, prose, and art. Her work has been translated into Korean, Romanian, Japanese, Italian, Sicilian, Chinese, Arabic, Bengali, Bulgarian, Russian, Spanish, Catalan, and Greek. Her poetry book, Vagabond Dawns, is published in both English/Korean and English/Romanian bilingual editions. Carolyn’s book of philosophical aphorisms, Soul Seeds: Revelations and Drawings, is published in bilingual English/Korean and English/Japanese editions, a trilingual English/Italian/Sicilian edition, and will be published in bilingual Romanian, Bulgarian, Russian, Chinese, Catalan, and Spanish editions in 2018 and 2019. Kleefeld’s book, The Divine Kiss was published in a bilingual English/Japanese edition in 2017, and in bilingual English/Greek, and trilingual English/Sicilian/Italian editions in 2018. Kleefeld's poems are featured along with the writings of seven other acclaimed woman writers in a continuing course, designed by poet and dramatist Peter Thabit Jones, “The Other Half of the Sky: Eight Woman Writers,” taught at Swansea University in Wales, England.

Artwork

Kleefeld’s artwork has appeared in numerous galleries and museums over the past 25 years.
The Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California, exhibited a retrospective of her paintings and drawings and published an exhibition catalog, Carolyn Mary Kleefeld: Visions from Big Sur, with art from the exhibit and a commentary by museum curator and director, Michael Zakian, Ph.D..
Other major solo exhibitions include “30 years of Abstract Visions” at the Gallery at the Ventana Inn in Big Sur, California, “The Divine Kiss” at the Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum in Santa Barbara, California and Shreveport, Louisiana, “Art, Poetry, and Reflective Prose”at the Walter Lee Avery Gallery at the Seaside, California City Hall, “Parallel Universes: Visions for the 21st Century” at the Stowitts Museum & Library in Pacific Grove, California, “A Retrospective from Abstract to Neo-Impressionism” at the corporate offices of “333 Bush Street,” in San Francisco, California, and a poetry reading and art exhibit at Gallerie Illuminati in Santa Monica, California. Kleefeld's art has also been exhibited at The American Jewish University, Los Angeles, The B.J. Spoke Gallery, Huntington, New York, The Old Courthouse Art Center, Woodstock, Illinois, The New York Hall of Science, New York, NY, the Alexandria Museum of Art, Alexandria, Louisiana, Woman Made Gallery, Chicago, Illinois, University of California-Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, California, National Arts Club in New York, New York, and Nassau County Museum of Art, Roslyn Harbor, New York, among others.
Ms. Kleefeld’s award-winning art is in the permanent collections, among others, of The Downey Museum of Art, The Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum, The Henry Miller Memorial Library in Big Sur, and The Dylan Thomas Theatre, in Swansea, Wales. In addition to being featured in art magazines, textbooks, and on the cover of poetry books, her art can be found in the personal collections of Ted Turner and many others, in the estates of Laura Archera Huxley and Dr. Timothy Leary, as well as at the United Nations.

Carolyn Campagna Kleefeld Contemporary Art Museum

The University Art Museum at California State University, Long Beach was renamed the Carolyn Campagna Kleefeld Contemporary Art Museum in 2019, and will be undergoing an expansion and renovation, re-opening in the fall of 2021. The museum will add 80 paintings and 90 drawings of Carolyn's to their permanent collection. In addition, the university will house Carolyn's literary archives, and an endowment will fund annual scholarships for the College of the Arts, an interdisciplinary lecture series at the university, a student intern, and museum program enhancement.

Awards and honors

Library Archive / Monterey, California
The Monterey Public Library has accepted Ms. Kleefeld's archive of work in its California History Room at 625 Pacific Street in Monterey. All of her books are catalogued there, as well as book reviews, press releases, newspaper and magazine articles, etc. from 1979 when her first book, Climates of the Mind was published, up through the present. Students and other patrons will have access to her work for their research and studies.
Museum of Modern Art / Archive
The Museum of Modern Art in New York has expanded their archive of Ms. Kleefeld's work, accepting her books which include her artwork, and book reviews, press releases, newspaper and magazine articles, etc. from 1991 with her solo exhibit at Gallerie Illuminati in Santa Monica, California, up through the present. Students and other patrons will have continuing access to her work for their research and studies.
Vince Clemente Papers / University of Rochester / Rochester, New York. A number of Kleefeld’s publications as well as her correspondence with Vince Clemente, are included in this archive.