Kelly is a self-taught artist based in New Jersey, working primarily in oil paint while continually exploring new mediums and subjects. She grew up surrounded by a family of artists and makers, creatives in many forms, which shaped her understanding of art from an early age. While she had always been drawn to making art herself, it wasn’t until the loss of her mother that she began to pursue it seriously. What began as an outlet to express and process what she was feeling became a love for the medium, and a foundation for her artistic practice.

Painting people’s pets and family members has always been at the heart of her work, but over the years her practice has taken her beyond the canvas. She enjoys the challenge of moving between intimate, detailed pieces and larger scale work, between projects with a clear vision and those with no rules at all. Each offers a different challenge and an opportunity to follow the work wherever it leads. More than any particular subject or medium, at the center of it all is a genuine love of simply creating.