I’m Kelley

I’ve been telling stories as a writer for more than 15 years. In so many ways, being a writer let me go wherever my curiosity went—and that’s been a lot of eclectic places.

Horses were my first passion as a kid—I competed through college and went on to get certified in equine bodywork. I’ve logged nearly a thousand hours studying holistic health and energy work, always drawn to the space where body and spirit meet. My 20s found me with a backpack, a passport, and a pull toward far-off places. Now my free time is mostly spent in fresh air, on the water in my kayak or checking off a new peak in the Adirondacks.

A few years ago I made a vision board, just a collage of pictures that made me feel things. Mountains. Sunrise. A flower blooming. The silhouette of a horse. A ball gown. Star trails. A deer leaping through golden woods. I didn’t have language for what I was trying to call in, but it came in anyway.

Just after I created that vision board, I got an email in my inbox—an open call for applications to join one of the most inspiring landscape-portrait artists in the world, Elizabeth Gadd, on her Iceland creative retreat. I’ll never forget the swell of excitement I felt when I got in. It was the first time I turned the camera from a landscape to myself, and it opened a door.

If it’s a calling, it won’t stop calling. The practice of self-portraiture has been an unexpected gift after a personal season of loss and change. The pictures started to show me things I wasn’t seeing on my own—what I’d overcome, who I’d become, and a glimpse of the light I’d had inside all along. It feels spiritual to me to connect with that, and it’s an experience I really want to share.