Kaitlin Kelly

Artist Statement

Pain is inevitable, we have the choice to run from it, or take the time to feel and understand it. The hardest and easiest thing to do in life, is to feel. If we pay more attention to how we feel, we get used to it, we understand it, we become friends with it. When we don’t pack these feelings away, we can set them free.

These days it seems were so accustomed to numbing ourselves with the day by day. The sparks get lost along the way and we get caught in a dull cycle. Were taught that the cycle is safe, and the fire that burns inside of us is danger. It’s so deep that spend our entire lives in boxes; we drive in a box, we work in a box, we stare at a glowing box inside of another box. These boxes aren’t safe from our feelings like we’re lead to believe. If we cry inside the box it will get soggy and collapse on us. So escape, and run free! Because at least if we cry outside of the box, we will have a river to swim away with. We will have water to plant new seeds and grow new flowers. We can sit in the sun and listen to our ancestors songs whispering in the wind.

The duality of life is what keeps us moving, we’re unable to truly appreciate happy moments without sad ones. If we numb the sad moments, we also numb the happy.

Biography

I’m kaitlin Kelly, a 29 year old painter from Illinois. I lived my life blindly, and worked the endless 9-5. But something was always missing, I was stuck in a loop. It took a near death experience, for me to be forced out of that loop. I was a dysfunctional alcoholic that blamed life for all of my issues, and I wasn’t present with anything.

It wasn’t until getting sick, that I realized, that problems in our lives are actually the medicine.They’re teachings that give us the ability to grow stronger. Kind of like a sunset, there is no light without darkness.

Today, I focus my life on appreciating the essence of duality, because without that chaos, we are dull. Every painting I create has some sort of duality incorporated. I don’t put thought or plan into any painting, I just let it happen. This process takes happiness, sadness, anger, and by the very end, I conquer all of it and I learn. Life is ugly beautiful and crazy, and we need to embrace every piece, because if we don’t, we’re missing out. 

Exhibition History (CV)