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Artist Profile

Kelly Watson's site reactive and material driven sculptures, paintings and installations communicate her thoughts on nature and the spaces we inhabit. From deep, saturated hues, to bright, playful palettes, she is a master at using color and form to convey her message while manipulating perception of scale and space. An observer of the pattern and processes of nature she skillfully maps the connections between our current selves and the selves who came before. 

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Her work is a meditation on trauma through the lens of modern motherhood and femininity: how we carry and reflect our personal and collective trauma on the world around us and further, how that is a reflection of the natural process of growth and decay. Textiles, fibers, inks, wood, paint, all woven, painted, or sewn together, bringing nature into human spaces and softening the divide between our urban existence and nature just outside our doors.

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All art, surface pattern designs, prints, photography and thoughts on this website are the thoughts, physical and intellectual property of the artist, Kelly Watson, 2025.

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Portrait by Cooper Carras 2024

Shows, Exhibitions, Media

Education

California State University Monterey Bay: Visual and Public Art, 2006

 

Residencies

2007-2009

Octopi Collective Co-Founder, Monterey CA

 

Publications

2023

  • “Transition Phase” 2023, Flora Fiction Magazine

 

Group Exhibitions

2005

  • Inaugural Balfour-Brutzman Gallery Show, Cal State Monterey Bay, Marina CA 

  • “Chairs”, Monterey Regional Airport, Monterey CA

 

2006

  • Capstone Show, Cal State Monterey Bay, Marina California 

  • “West End”, Sand City CA 

  • “Scraps of My Undoing”, Miriam’s Coffee, Monterey CA

 

2007

  • “Octopi Collective”, Hawthorne Warehouse, Sand City CA

  • “Madonna”, Cafe Lumiere, Monterey CA

  • “Untapped Desires”, Hawthorne Warehouse, Sand City CA

  • Steinbeck Center 2009 

 

2008

  • “Corporeal: Octopi Collective Anniversary”, Jose’s Underground, Monterey CA

 

2009

  • “From This Stone and Anvil: Arthurian Legend Exposed and Abstracted”, National Steinbeck Center, Salinas CA

2011

  • “Maker’s Market”, Denver CO

 

2022

  • “Pacific Northwest Quilt and Fiber Arts Museum Fall Festival”, La Conner WA

 

Solo Exhibitions

2007

  • “Kelly Watson”, Miriam’s Coffee Shop, Monterey CA 

 

2024

  • “Forest Tides”, Stardust Salon, Olympia Fall Arts Walk, Olympia WA

 

Installations

2016

  • “Golden Forest”, Zearly, Carmel CA

 

2017

  • “Spring Meadow”, Zearly, Carmel CA

  • “Mermaid Bay”, Zearly, Carmel CA

 

2018

  • “Nutcracker Ball”, Metronome Dancewear, Carmel CA

 

2019

  • “There’s No Place Like Gnome”, Zearly, Carmel CA

 

2020

  • “Black Swan, Pink Swan”, Metronome Dancewear, Carmel CA

 

2021

  • “Dance Storm”, Metronome Dancewear, Carmel CA

 

2024

  • “Nested”, Goldberg Building, Downtown Olympia WA, Olympia Artspace Alliance Spring Show  “Community”

 

2025

  • “I Saw The Autumn In Her Eyes”, Socha Arts, Olympia WA

  • “Nested”, Socha Arts, Olympia WA

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