​To be an artist is to be a maker. I believe that is the closest we come to the understanding of god. For me Art is a conversation with the infinite. It is the act of opening yourself to the universe and truly listening. 

​​The Azurite Bear series- Bears are our fellow travelers through life.  Strong and courageous, they seem to embody the earth itself.
My family has been traveling the corridor between the Ohio River Valley and Florida for several generations. We have a lot of bear stories.  In my paintings I return to them again and again. 
As a child of 5 or 6, on a spring afternoon, in a clearing in the smoky mountains along the Blue Ridge Parkway, my family pulled over for a bit of lunch.  I wandered off, and happened upon two bear cubs in a clearing.  We were about the same size. We seemed to recognize each other as potential friends and having a box of cracker jacks naturally I shared them.  As they came closer and closer both their mother and mine noticed.  Parents can be funny. My dad seemingly from nowhere snatched me up in his arms and we ended up at the far side of the clearing. The bear cubs ended up at the other.  I never got to tell them goodbye and so I think they have remained with me.

The Corn Mother is the archetype of the giver.  
 
The Blue Corn Mother was the last painting I completed for my show at Red Cloud in November of 2014.  That show - “Forces of Nature – Transcendent Exploration” sought to express relationships with the earth and the universe through visual interpretation on canvas of Stones, Shells and Coral.    It was also for me a working through of the emotions of the recent death of my mother.  The concept of release and return. 
 
The latest painting in the Blue Corn Mother Series - Yellow Corn Mother combines the earth connectedness of the blue corn mother with the healing warmth of the sun and its life giving forces.  It is the morning light as it pours into the windows very early. The memories of things that cannot be forgotten but sometimes sleep. The smells, the colors and the feelings that can be seen in the clouds when the sun reflects off them after a rain.

"The most important thing to me is what YOU see. Art is about the conversation you are having."   D YaeL Kelley

"Watching the sky for portents
I fly through holes in the universe
Made by the motherchild of creation
I land to be carried by wisdom turtles
To where the sleeping bear awakens" 
- Quote from a Dallas street artist named Roddy
about the work of D YaeL Kelley 




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