Art Has The Power To Transform Lives  by Kelly C. Perry.            Jan 2014

Government cuts to arts programming sadden artist Kelly C Perry.

In her own life she has used art to heal and in her work has seen that art has the                                                    power to transform lives.

“ I have worked as a program and outreach worker at the Kamloops Art Gallery for                                           seven years and have seen special needs people empowered by the art” Perry says.  

She has mentored people with little to no motor skills, enabling them to create art.

The smiles in return are all one needs to know art does make a difference.

In future she hopes to garner a grant to do some free outreach art workshops for

people in need.

“It would be great to put together a catalogue of art at the end of a workshop, so

the participants could take that away with them to keep permanently.” She says.

Perry went back to school after life-altering event changed her life and she needed

something to keep her alive. She applied to be accepted into the Fine Arts Program

at Thompson Rivers University with only her grade 8 education and her upgrading

from Pathfinders Lab and was accepted. In 2005 Kelly graduated with a BFA. She

began creating her story through art and has created several joint and solo exhibitions.

Kelly’s art tells her story, the journey of life through the eyes of a plant, she is really

juxtaposing her own personal life using her flower garden and the plants stages such

as the seeds of a plant/seeds of a human, death/rebirth and finally were she is today.

Through art Kelly was able to heal herself allowing the pain to be conquered each day

by the colors, lines and most of all her feelings as they change from day to day on

each piece she creates what she could not put into words.  Art had become her way

of survival and one can see when they look deeply the degree of fear and pain along

the journey. Art became her life, art has become her soul mate, and although she still

struggles with the past from time to time, art has allowed her to move forward and help

people so less fortunate than her.

The exhibition has become a dedication to her children and grandchildren, each of  the  

small pieces is a representation of her family, through the eyes of a seed and a beginning.