Kelly was born and raised in Northwest Indiana and attended classes at the American Academy of Art in Chicago. She began her art career working as a graphic artist in Chicago, then relocated to Los Angeles, where she honed her artistic painting skills as a motion picture scenic artist. More recently one of her paintings was used on the television show Starting Over.

Kelly has, for the past five years, devoted herself full-time to studio painting. Her art draws on the widely diverse techniques and styles she has learned over the years, along with her enthusiasm for artistic experimentation and exploration. Kelly's recent work has been a series of vibrantly colored abstract landscapes inspired by coastal California and urban Los Angeles and a series of commissions with an Asian landscape theme.