The Story of My Art

To me, art has been the unexpected & life-changing discovery of finding my passion. It was a dream I neglected until I was 30 years old, a whisper in my life yearning to be heard. When I finally began to put paint onto paper, my heart and life exploded with a joy I hadn’t known before. Now, many moons later, the whimsical and playful nature of my paintings still come from the inside like a quiet yet heartfelt truth. Much like my own spirit, my work expresses honesty and tenderness while remaining lighthearted and colorful. My hope is that my work invokes a sense of clarity and peace within you as you walk your own path in life, and that it inspires you discover your own limitlessness.

The Story of Me

Kelly Rae grew up in rural North Florida where she jumped off docks into the Sante Fe Lake with her german shepherd dog every day after school. As a child, she lived for eating fried chicken every Sunday afternoon, fishing with an old tattered piece of bamboo, and playing checkers with her then 85 year old granddad. Amidst the winding dirt roads of her hometown, Kelly experienced the joy and complexity of life and, like her mother and sister, turned to creative outlets as a way to express her experience of life.

Eventually, Kelly’s family moved to Jacksonville, Florida where she attended middle and high school. Later, she attended college at Florida State University, deciding to major in something “practical”- social work. In 1999, she met her husband John and they set off to begin a life together in Portland, Oregon. It was there that Kelly eventually decided to take up running which mysteriously led her to discover the confidence and passion to pursue a longtime “impractical” dream: to become an artist.

Kelly is the author of Taking Flight: Inspiration + Techniques to Give Your Creative Spirit Wings, a popular arts + craft book that encompasses all aspects of what it means to live the creative life. Her work has been featured in a variety of mixed media books by her peers and she’s had several articles published in various magazines, including Cloth Paper Scissors, Somerset Life, Somerset Studios, and Memory Makers. Much of her artwork is licensed and can be seen in stores nationwide on a variety of products, including cards, journals, magnets, decorative wall art, and more. In addition to painting, licensing her work, and writing, Kelly is passionate about teaching others how they too can find their creative wings with her inspiring lectures and workshops that are held all over the world.

In essence, she is an artist, social worker and all around lover of life and people who seeks to express a sense of vitality and connectedness in her paintings and writings. Having spent most of her life in the company of women, her pieces grow out of the kindred support she has felt from many of them throughout her life. She is unendingly grateful for the spirits of these women who walk with her, in flesh or in paint, on her incredible journey into art, love and life.

Kelly currently lives in Seattle with her outdoorsy husband John and their airplane-eared dog Bella.