Kelly Dean Joins St. Albert's Artistic Community

There are two sides to Kelly Dean’s art. The first is in service to others: as a graphic designer, she helps clients clarify and visualize their concepts. The second side—her off-the-clock personal work—is gorgeous abstract and landscape painting, where she lets artistic intuition guide her hand. 

“It's always been a balance between my day job and doing this as well,” she says.  

“[With graphic design] there is an end product, so you're working towards the brief. it's a bit more refined, in that sense,” Dean continues. “The abstraction just allows that inner freedom just to completely come out. It doesn't have to be any particular thing. It's more about the feeling that I want to evoke.” 

Regardless of the form it takes, art’s been part of Dean’s life since childhood. Her father was also a graphic designer, and she has early, fond memories of spending time in his studio. After studying visual communication design at Calgary’s Alberta University of the Arts, she entered the field. She hadn’t really explored abstract art before then, but found herself drawn to art that pulled her away from her screen to balance out her design work. 

“When I started working full time, I was like, I just want something that's not computer-based all the time,” Dean recalls. “That's when I got more into exploring painting, the gestural, and using your body more, as opposed to sitting in front of a screen all day.”  

The results are evocative. Dean’s recent collection, Stay Gold, is a beautifully-hued group of acrylic-paint florals.  

“In terms of style, Stay Gold has been a collection I've wanted to create for a very long time,” she says. “I feel like it's the truest to the type of artist and the type of work that I would like to be doing to represent myself.  

“It's a nod towards Robert Frost's poem, the idea that nothing gold can stay,” she continues, of the collection’s title. “Poetry and different areas inspire my work as well. … I like painting a little bit from a reference, but moreso a feeling.” 

Dean finds herself working more in a collection mindset these days—another group of works, the Botanical series, mixes penwork with bright splashes of watercolour. But the idea of making collections means more  in general, which also requires more space to store those works. Fortunately, as a relatively recent transplant to St. Albert, Dean now finds herself with ample room to explore her artistic impulses, as she finds her place within the larger arts community here. 

‘One of the benefits of moving to a new house,” she laughs. “Now we have all this space, so I gotta fill it with canvases.” 

Article Written By: Paul Blinov

Kelly Dean’s art can be found at www.kellydeanart.ca, or on instagram at @kelly.dean.art. 

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