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.

Kelly prides herself on her air of superficiality, stating that she’s “not a deep thinker” and that she’s “not consciously aware of any messages” in her work, but viewers see something different.

Her Trompe L’oeil portraits-in-absentia are representations of unseen personalities. The things we use as everyday consumers are portrayed in a way that explore what it looks like to be human today. A wooden side table painted in acrylic with a polaroid of a cat, a glass beer bottle turned on its side, loose change, cigarettes, and playing cards laid out in a game of solitaire is reflective of a life of solitude. What can you tell about a person by looking at their ordinary, habitually-used things? What’s the story behind the beer bottle and the lonely card game? Are these symbols of an addict’s typical night in? Is the cat photo a mirror of the absence of family? Has the cigarette left burning in the ashtray been forgotten by someone with nothing left to care about? Or is this whole set up the inner world of someone who is content with a quiet life? The Trompe L’oeil pieces are the only projects that don’t seem to have Kelly’s trademark straightforward concepts.

**It’s up to the viewer to piece together the scattered puzzles of these hidden identities.**

A reclamation of childhood is present in most of Kelly’s portrait paintings, sculptures, and Artcars. From her birth, Kelly’s family traveled abroad and resided in Switzerland, England, Denmark, and Japan due to her father’s work. Being uprooted so many times never allowed Kelly a sense of stability or community in her childhood years. However, it did give her a love of people. Because she’s lived all over the world, Kelly now has “friends across all borders, all creeds, all ages” and “could now fit in anywhere.” This seems to be why childlike wonder and other people’s stories are central to her work. Her portraits, like the one of a child sitting in a salon chair with rollers in her hair, holding a teddy bear, or the “Sam I Am” portrait are vividly colored and brightly lit. There’s nostalgia in all of her people and pet portraits, and in her Candyland series, which mostly pictures popular candy packages and a reimagining of the Candyland board game box. And there’s a sense of capturing and encapsulating time for the viewer’s inner child to hold on to through generations.

In her series “The 12 Steps,” Kelly explores themes of addiction and the aftermath of an addict’s absurd actions. With 36 years sober, Kelly is an outspoken advocate for recovery, but she is not rigid or unforgiving in her stance on the matter. On drinking and drugging, Kelly believes that if it works for you and you’re not hurting anyone, then by all means, keep the party going. But “if it screws up your life…do something about it.”

**She aims to open up the conversation of addiction and destigmatize the affliction so that people can be comfortable sharing their stories and find solidarity in their sobriety.**

“The 12 Steps” pieces depict stories that most addicts can relate to, like waking up to a stranger in “Who Are You,” or being late to an obligation because of a car wreck caused by drunk driving in “I’ll Be A Little Late.

The glitter utilized in these paintings, such as the shimmering words of discouragement laid behind a leering junkie in “Seclusion,” serves as “a visual allusion to the illusory beauty, drama and flashiness promised - but rarely delivered - by drugs and alcohol.” All that glitters is not gold, no matter how high you climb the mountain of synthetic euphoria.

There aren’t enough pages in this magazine to cover Kelly Lyles’ eccentricity, boundless oeuvre, and various roles in the creative community. She personally bagan the Artcar movement in Seattle over 25 years ago. She’s led five art tours in Cuba, China, Eastern Europe, and South Africa. She curates art shows, she’s won a number of awards since age seven, and she’s been “featured in numerous television shows, magazines, newspaper articles, multiple books, and in several documentary films.” Her work is in five to six shows at any given time, and has an upcoming solo show at Magnuson Park Gallery "ROYALTY, RODENTS & RING-POPS, a RETROSPECTIVE" March 16th through April 23rd. You can catch her Artcar and booth at the Fremont Fair, and you can check out her work as well as take a virtual tour of her studio on her website www.kellyspot.com. Her Intsagram account, @lkellykyles, and her email list are also great ways to discover new creatives and events. If you’re looking for creative community in Seattle, Kelly Lyles is the best place to start.