We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kelly O’Neill. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kelly below.

Alright, Kelly thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

There was always art in my life. My father was an artist, so I was always surrounded by his creations. I love to create. As a child, I sewed. I painted. I drew. I acted. I reinvented. As a professional marketer, I was creating every day. Now that I have retired from the corporate world, I feel like I have returned to my child-like wonder and the freedom it brings to create.

I was thrusted into my metal sculpture career when my Dad was diagnosed with lung cancer. My Dad has always been a major influence in my life. You would describe him as a “renaissance” man. He was always exploring new creative expressions from photography to candle making. He found his true calling as a potter. I always followed his lead, enjoying the journey and camaraderie. His death started my artistic journey – first making mixed media creations with his pottery and enhancing them with metal stands. I wanted to pursue a new perspective to honor my Dad’s art. I believe the expected presentation of a ceramic vessel limited its expression and uniqueness. This led to my exploration of metal form as its own artistic expression.

After his death, I spent many days in his studio completing his unfinished work. My mom said she felt his presence and wanted me to continue his legacy. It was then that she suggested we do an art show. That was the beginning. I felt my Dad had my back and gave me the confidence. I never questioned myself because of that.

Kelly, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am a contemporary abstract artist that works with recycled metals, clay and fused glass. My multi-media sculptures start with one or two pieces of inspirational metal, which form the idea. Each shape contributes to the final form. The exploration of the positive and negative space, the composition and three-dimensional process results in something unique and one-of-a-kind.

My mission is to express something beautiful using found items. I include ceramic vessels and fused glass to accentuate the form as an exclamation point of creative expression. My creative process is intuitive. I rarely sketch, (unless its for a commission) and allow the found material to shape each piece. I believe that working on a predetermined result is less satisfying and usually results in a creative expression that is more pedestrian.

I enjoy manipulation of metal using fabrication machinery: Specifically, the bending and cutting of metal to form a more fluid and unique sculpture. As well, I am exploring better integration of my ceramic and steel pieces: Building each piece with the other medium in mind.

I have also add glass into some of my metal sculptures. The added materials add a small but significant surprise and delight. The whimsical chaotic nature of the glass contradicts the hard edges of the metal. The glass is not meant to be the focal point of the piece – more of an exclamation point.

I love making sculptures that are designed for the outdoors: to live within the garden and among the abundance of colors and textures of nature. The last summer solstice provided additional reflection of the importance of the sun and stars and their influence on culture and spirituality. I feel compelled to explore this curiosity.

With my retirement from my marketing career, I have time to exhale and allow more introspection and thoughtfulness in my creations with attention to construction and care in production.

I do commission work and the creative process is vastly different. Creating for clients provides a different sense of satisfaction. I love helping them find joy in a piece of art that reflects their aesthetic.

Creating for myself or creating for the sake of creating is different than having a client that you want to satisfy. When I create for myself, I work intuitively and allow my mood and state of mind to drive the creative process. It is about feeling pure joy and that feeling that athletes have when they are in the “zone”. I have no sense of time or sense of self when I am in the zone.

The process of creating the marketing for my work is also satisfying. I enjoy photography, typography, web-design, video production and copywriting. It allows me to stay in touch with the career I enjoyed with General Motors for 34 years.

I am excited about the possibilities of creating something new and unique. I do not find joy in production work or the repetitive process of creation. Each series is inspired by something new. My execution is only limited by my access to materials and tools. As an emerging artist, I work within my means. My materials are gifted or found or repurposed from scrap. My fab shop is Maker Works in Ann Arbor, about 30 minutes away. My studio is a garage stall in my home.

Finally, my story is more about the form than a political or social message. I find peace and purpose in the process. For now, this is my journey.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

I worked for General Motors for 34 years. I focused on my career and family and had little time for anything else. When I retired, it was important to me that I find a way to give back and to share my knowledge and experience to those just starting their careers. I didn’t have much mentorship myself and believe I would have benefited from some early guidance.

So in 2018, I was a participating artist at the Funky Ferndale art fair. Across the street was a non-profit that supports the careers of young Detroit teen artists, Mint Artists Guild. I spent some time with the artists and the executive director and learned that they needed some help with their marketing. I started with creating simple brand guidelines, updated their website, created courses for their artists and convinced the board to hire a marketing intern. The program continues to grow and help young artists. And, today I mentor the marketing intern and provide branding and marketing seminars to the young artists.

My advice to the young artists starts with encouraging them to do the work to define their brand. As artists, our clients are investing in more than our product. The artist’s story and brand positioning is as important as the product itself. Once you have established your brand’s “DNA”, then the artist has a good foundation to develop marketing messages. There are plenty of seminars and tools on line to help artist and entrepreneurs do this.

The second piece of advice I give is to be consistent. As artists, we naturally want to change things up, and we should in our art, but the artist’s marketing needs to have foundational roots that keeps the messaging grounded and consistent. This is how artists will build a reputation, value and intrinsic equity. So simple things, like tone of voice, fonts, color palette, photography style, community engagement etc. helps create brand awareness, familiarity and opinion, which ultimately helps with the artist’s success.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

Selfishly, being my own boss. Working for a large corporation, where every important decision is a committee driven, watered down, compromise, dampers your joy. Once I made the decision to leave the corporate world and be an artist full-time, there was a shift in my life perspective. I may sound over dramatic, but I don’t know how else to describe the feeling. I am the only person who decides what I do, what I make, where I sell, what I sell it for, who I work with…….. It’s like you have a pre-determined box in your chest with four walls that contain your place and now the walls are gone, and you are determining your boundaries.

It took me a while to settle into this new rhythm of thinking. At first, I still maintained a culture of structured goal-setting with defined expectations. The pandemic finally fixed me of that. Taking a “forced” year off. allowed a true reset. I have come out of the pandemic with a new determination to find real purpose in my art. To connect to the joy of the process and find peace in creating.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.FusionOfIronAndEarth.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iron.n.earth
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LuvMiArt
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kellyoneill/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYybGYX7_D9Z4JJW-NRYcJw