Kelly

Oil on linen, 24” x 18”, 2025

Kelly is my cousin, and we grew up side by side. She was the eldest of five while I was an only child, and I would spend summers at their house, immersed in the chaos I adored. We took daily trips to the beach, shared the best cheese and sprout sandwiches, and I watched her act as a second mother to her younger siblings.

Over the years, her strength and determination only deepened. I have always thought she was beautiful inside and out. She is brilliant, funny, and gifted with the ability to see beauty in simple things, a talent she inherited from her mother, my aunt, who made everything feel magical. Kelly embodies strength, individuality, and self-acceptance. And her garden is a wonder—she has the greenest thumb of anyone I know.