Amelia Kelly: using indigenous art as inspiration

Neve Galmarini|November 28, 2022

Courtesy of Amelia Kelly

Awakening represents the start of Amelia’s journey as an artist. She started creating this piece by finger painting little men, following Mayan art style, one of her main inspirations. She kept adding to the painting over a course of time until this beautiful piece was created.

Art has always called to junior Amelia Kelly, a channel for her to illustrate her inner thoughts and feelings.  Amelia’s paintings are malt made with paint pens, acrylic paint, water color, and textiles. Amelia’s creations are inspired by personal relationships and past travel experiences. Last summer, Amelia spent three weeks in Florence, Italy to study art.

Her paintings also feature aspects of history and indigenous work, including Mayan and Mexican Catholic art. The stories told through indigenous art, such as the creation of the Earth, and how the stories are represented and articulated, inspire Amelia.

Satana shows an art style that Amelia does not normaly use. She drew inspiration from her family name, seeing as there is a long line of Satana in her family’s lineage, and used this piece to preserve her family name. Each person, face, and bug represents someone in her family. (Courtesy of Amelia Kelly)

Although she has created art her whole life, Amelia strengthened her commitment  after learning about the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), where she hopes to attend.

“…[FIT] is just a beautiful school in New York where it is just all about fashion design, design, and 3D design,” Amelia said.

Amelia believes that art has shaped her life as she works to learn and grow as an artist every day.

Summer was created before Amelia went into summer break, and was inspired by the seasons and the way the earth changes throughout the year. Amelia was trying to have this piece convey the feelings of glee that each person feels at the end of the school year. She chose to express these feelings through bright colors and bold shapes. (Courtesy of Amelia Kelly)