Bio

I have been an artist all my life.

I didn’t know I was an artist. I never thought of myself as an artist, because that was never the plan. But I have learned over the years, that we are all artists. Art is defined as the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination. To be human is to create. My motto has always been that the art of living well is to live life like it is art.

Like all young, dumb kids, I thought that a career was about nothing more than earning money. Like many of my generation, I grew up in an environment where creativity was a luxury, not a necessity. Where personal preferences took a back seat to practical, pragmatic earning capacity. It never occurred to me to study something I was good at. I had no idea how important it would be to actually LIKE what I did for a living. In my sophomore year, I settled on Journalism/Marketing, not because I loved it, but because it was the most creative field I could think of in the business world (I at least had that much foresight!).

By my final year of a rather uninspired college education (1996), I had finished all of my required classes and decided to take Ceramics 101 as a blow-off class to obtain enough credits to graduate. The irony was that I spent more time studying, preparing, and working in that class, than the effort put into the rest of my bachelors degree combined. I would go to the clay studio by noon (I’ve never been an early riser) and the next time I looked up, security would be asking me to leave because they were locking up for the night! I was in love.

However, a love affair never runs smoothly. I stayed the course of my academic projectile, dismissing my urge to play with clay as an academic fluke.

Again, life has a mysterious way of showing us what it wants us to see so that we may learn the lessons we were born to learn and give us the tools to eventually fulfill our calling. In 2000 I jumped on my bike (literally) and cycled 800 miles through Ireland before heading to England to pursue yet further ill-conceived higher education. Thinking I might want a career in international journalism, I got my M.A. in International Relations at one of the most prestigious universities in the country. While in Europe I traveled extensively developing a strong appreciation for the diversity of human endeavor and a deep empathy for the human condition.

Over the next 10 years I kept getting pulled back into clay classrooms until finally I threw up my hands and admitted, I wanted to be a potter. I studied Contemporary Ceramic Practice at Newcastle College in England in 2005.  In 2010 I returned to America and began working in my own studio.

While my first love is clay, photography is my second, and I must reluctantly admit that I am a better photographer than a potter.  It wasn’t until I once admitted to a friend while traveling in Hong Kong, that my ability to capture a place is inseparable from my enjoyment of the experience. If I can’t take photos what’s the point? She, of course, thought this was ridiculous, and rightly so, but it was the first time that I realized that I too, was a photographer. I believe that being a good photographer requires the desire to look closely at the world and the ability to tell a good story. It is capturing the essence of a single moment, in a world that is constantly changing. Perhaps taking photos makes me feel secure in an uncertain world. But I like to think I’m paying homage to the immense beauty I see around me.

In the years since my return from England, the puzzle of my life has become clearer. I began to study meditation and realized that my future had to include purpose. A mindless career in any field was just not good enough. I went back to school yet again and became a licensed massage therapist. I met my husband, a sound healer, meditation practitioner, and artist and we embarked on a life together as healers.

And that is how I got to now.

The experiences of my life have come full circle and the path before me is opening, along with my heart. At long last I have fallen in love with the education I began 27 years ago. I am currently the Marketing Manager of Catholic Charities in Flint, Michigan. I spend my days writing stories about amazing people, taking photos, and running all of the marketing and social media at the agency. In my free time, I create art and work with my husband to offer meditation events and retreats.

One day I had a heart-to-heart with myself about my goals as a marketing professional. What businesses do I want to succeed? What do we need more of in the world? The answer was simple. I dedicate any freelance marketing work I do, only to helping artists and healers. That is why I created Orenda by kellie (with a small k… to keep me humble). Of Iroquois origin, orenda is a mystical force present in all people that empowers them to affect the world or effect change in their own lives.

Visit my husband’s website to learn more www.strongheartdrummedicine.com