The Artist

Amy Kelly is a mixed media artist and painter based in San Francisco and Sonoma, California. Born and raised in Pasadena, she moved to San Francisco in 1994, where she has built a life bridging art, design, and creative exploration.

She earned a BA in Art from the University of the Pacific with an emphasis in textile design and spent more than three decades in the interior design industry, working in textile sales, showroom management, and design roles for prominent Bay Area designers. This professional foundation continues to inform her approach to art through an understanding of composition, surface, and how visual elements live together within a space.

Kelly’s creative path also includes founding ASK Amy, a hand-painted textile and custom linen business. She is currently pursuing postgraduate study at California College of Art while maintaining an active studio practice centered on mixed media and collage.

Kelly is the featured guest artist for April (2026) at the Arts Guild of Sonoma Gallery, presenting her exhibition In Bloom: Handpicked Compositions.

 The Art

The work unfolds through an intuitive, layered process guided by attention and response rather than a predetermined plan. Kelly begins with a chosen fragment and color scheme that informs the direction of each piece, building the composition through painted marks, collected and self-made papers, stitched lines, and occasional unexpected elements allowing every addition to suggest what comes next.

Subtle shifts in color, irregular edges, and unexpected relationships create movement across the surface. Stitches act as connective pathways, while marks function as pauses, creating moments of rhythm and rest within the composition.

Rather than offering a fixed narrative, the work remains open and experiential. Meaning emerges gradually through looking, inviting the viewer to slow down and follow the gentle progression from one element to another. The work lingers, inviting the viewer to slow down and look more closely.