Kelly Lyles
There is no summing up Kelly Lyles.
One could try to describe her to the best of their ability and they’d still miss half the story. A Seattle-based creative originally from Roanoak, Virginia, Kelly’s entire life and personality are drenched in color and fullness. On her person, she’s usually decked out in unusual accessories, such as big, feathery hats and crayon necklaces. The walls of her publicized home are covered in artwork and she fills every nook and cranny of her Artcars with color and found objects.
Negative space is generally absent in her paintings, reflecting her attitude on living life to the fullest.
Although Kelly has endured harsh trials and tribulations throughout her life, she wears her inner child as a badge of honor earned through an uprooted childhood, an inspiring history of overcoming addiction, and the ability to flip the script on a life of downward spirals. Now, Kelly is a well-known member of the Seattle creative scene who thrives on fostering community. Kelly Lyles is the picture of freedom and her creative work is a body of imagination and liberation.
Kelly has an extensive educational background in Art and Design. She was a U.S.A. National Merit Scholar, earning a Concours National de Francais Certificate of Merit. She studied at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, the Academy of Art College in San Francisco, California, Seattle’s Gage Academy of Art, and the Artist’s Trust EDGE program in Seattle. Since childhood, Kelly wanted to be a fashion illustrator, but by the time she got to college the profession was obsolete. So, she earned her degree in design. In 1996, after dating a painter who introduced her to the Freemont Arts Council, and after taking a few painting classes (some under PNW painter Charles Emerson), Kelly turned to fine art and never looked back. Her specialty is in oil and acrylic portrait paintings, but the scope of mediums she uses is vast, from her anti-portrait furniture pieces to her found object public sculptures and operative Artcars. All of her pieces, whether centered around comical critter puns or covering darker themes of addiction, show her whimsical nature and simplified, bright outlook on life….
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