Kelly is a metal artist living and working in Leicester, North Carolina. She holds a BFA in Sculpture from Kent State University. After graduating, Kelly studied performance art as a resident artist at the Atlantic Center for the Arts in New Smyrna Beach, Florida, where she promptly decided her life's work is setting the table. She began exploring the confluence of her two passions; farming and fabricating.

Kelly is influenced by necessity, and inspired by the whimsy of the ephemeral. She builds plates and utensils to be used as tools and vessels to honor the food she grows, creating objects that hold the indexical marks of time shared together, around an abundant table.

Kelly met a neighbor who introduced her to gold-panning and rockhounding, which led to the making of fine jewelry in addition to tableware. She uses the sourcing of her materials as a means of connection and storytelling, and a way to meet others, who eventually become guests at the table. Kelly holds her riches in her belly and her smile lines, and sometimes on her fingers, and creates work that encourages the same for others.