A Little (or a Lot) About Me
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Tracy Kelly is an artist, writer, photographer and graphic designer who’s passionate about creating art that inspires healing and encourages empowerment. Her lifelong journey with Anxiety, Depression, Fibromyalgia and Hypermobility Spectrum Disorder has made her an advocate for mental wellness. She speaks openly about her struggles to help break the stigma and normalize mental illness as any other illness. She’s trained in Mental Health First Aid and acts as an ambassador for her local counselling center.
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I've come to a point in my life where I know myself better than I ever have before and yet I'm at more of a loss for words about how to describe myself. Oxymoronic right? Especially for a writer.
My journey to this point has taken me from a young, empathic sensitive girl who loved to write poetry and who loved to paint on the easel my Dad lovingly crafted for me, to a woman, still highly sensitive and still trying to express myself through the heart of that little girl. I guess not much has changed.
It was always both: writing and art. Being convinced that there was no financial path to writing in Grade 8, I focused my studies instead on art and attended college to become a graphic artist. After a scant three years working at a local print shop, my wrists gave out to Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and that career ended.
Yet throughout my teenage years and beyond, I loved to write. The poetry I wrote expressed my heart in a way that nothing else could. Even my spoken words couldn't. Yet, putting words on a page was a direct, unfiltered way to express my deepest fears, my truest thoughts in a form without judgment or repercussion. Poetry turned into journaling, and journaling turned into cathartic writing.
And still art beckoned me. Beauty beckoned me. Trying to capture the magic and mystery of everyday life become a challenge for my camera. An exquisite light and enchantment happened after I started my spiritual journey and energy healing influenced my art like nothing else. Being able to perceive subtle energetic shifts guided me to photograph sacred sites and sites that held sacredness...two completely different things. I learned that the smallest, simplest space or item could hold vast amounts of unexplained energy and beauty.
And so, as I journeyed forth, this dance of writing and art filled me with a means of expression that nurtured me in my darkest days and inspired me in the lightest. The dance of being so sensitive exposed me to emotions that were simply too hard to bear at times. Anxiety, depression and chronic pain have danced with me for the past twenty years and have been my master teachers in crafting me into the version of Tracy that you witness today.
If you want to get to know me, follow my writing. I'm fully exposed. I write with unabashed vulnerability and abandon. I'm an open book, ready to spill my secrets in the desire to inspire or help someone else relate and heal.
If you want to get to know me, follow my art. See through my eyes. Wonder with me, heal with me through the beauty and sacredness of nature. Walk along with me as I try and capture the gifts that surround us and bring to light their message of hope and light.
It is my greatest honour to connect with you, dear friend.
My journey to this point has taken me from a young, empathic sensitive girl who loved to write poetry and who loved to paint on the easel my Dad lovingly crafted for me, to a woman, still highly sensitive and still trying to express myself through the heart of that little girl. I guess not much has changed.
It was always both: writing and art. Being convinced that there was no financial path to writing in Grade 8, I focused my studies instead on art and attended college to become a graphic artist. After a scant three years working at a local print shop, my wrists gave out to Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and that career ended.
Yet throughout my teenage years and beyond, I loved to write. The poetry I wrote expressed my heart in a way that nothing else could. Even my spoken words couldn't. Yet, putting words on a page was a direct, unfiltered way to express my deepest fears, my truest thoughts in a form without judgment or repercussion. Poetry turned into journaling, and journaling turned into cathartic writing.
And still art beckoned me. Beauty beckoned me. Trying to capture the magic and mystery of everyday life become a challenge for my camera. An exquisite light and enchantment happened after I started my spiritual journey and energy healing influenced my art like nothing else. Being able to perceive subtle energetic shifts guided me to photograph sacred sites and sites that held sacredness...two completely different things. I learned that the smallest, simplest space or item could hold vast amounts of unexplained energy and beauty.
And so, as I journeyed forth, this dance of writing and art filled me with a means of expression that nurtured me in my darkest days and inspired me in the lightest. The dance of being so sensitive exposed me to emotions that were simply too hard to bear at times. Anxiety, depression and chronic pain have danced with me for the past twenty years and have been my master teachers in crafting me into the version of Tracy that you witness today.
If you want to get to know me, follow my writing. I'm fully exposed. I write with unabashed vulnerability and abandon. I'm an open book, ready to spill my secrets in the desire to inspire or help someone else relate and heal.
If you want to get to know me, follow my art. See through my eyes. Wonder with me, heal with me through the beauty and sacredness of nature. Walk along with me as I try and capture the gifts that surround us and bring to light their message of hope and light.
It is my greatest honour to connect with you, dear friend.