Grace Shelley

     Grace was born and raised with the spectacular natural beauty of Alaska surrounding her. Nature and the environment still inform the work that she does as an artist today. She let Alaska as a young adult, hungry for exposure to vibrant urban environments, travel adventures and international creative arts exposure.
     When she retired from the workaday world in 2015, she returned to nurturing her creative side. She is largely a self-taught artist and creative. Experimenting with a variety of media, she eventually settled on digital photography. During the pandemic she spent a lot of time painting and combining it with her photography.                                                                                                      Currently, she lives and creates in her home and studio in Oceanside, California. Specializing in boutique art services, Grace works personally with clients to make their homes or businesses more beautiful spaces to live and work. Whether it's personal services for "Your Photos Your Way," or a mixed media piece for your home or office, Grace has got your covered! It is with the alchemy of imagination, experimentation, and editing that her visual giftd emerge.

I chose these three pieces to represent journeys taken to overcome life’s inevitable obstacles. The first two universal, and the third, deeply personal. Note that the titles are all six-word mini-stories.
     The first is an abstract colorful piece of ICM photography,(intentional camera movement): “Leap of Faith: Embracing the Unknown.” It depicts choices made, sometimes due to desperate circumstances or things out of our control. 

    The second is political:  “Leaving Home: Refugees Make Desperate Choices,” a highly processed photograph of dry parched earth near the San Diego border that figuratively represents a woman torn by untenable circumstances, who must leave all she holds dear—her home and her country, to find and make a better life for herself and her family. 

The third is intensely personal and spiritual:  “Phoenix Dancer Arises, Emerging As Herself “ depicts me after overcoming a devastating betrayal, dancing triumphantly out of golden muck and fiery flames with monarch butterflies emerging from my fingertips symbolizing my metamorphosis from brokenness to joy.              

CA

United States