Kelly Potts-Martinez
I am an English sculptor of mixed media wearable art sculpture jewelry, whimsical character sculptures and soft sculpture currently living and creating in the Sierra Nevada of Granada, Spain. Originally I trained as a designer and master pattern maker for the jewelry industry, then worked in antique jewelry reproduction and restoration which led to a more sculptural style. This developed into my main area of work, namely sculptural mixed media wearable art. Wanting to work on larger fairytale pieces inspired by Eastern European stop motion animation and folklore, I trained briefly as an art doll maker, eventually finding my own style of intricately costumed narrative character art dolls. My work is collected in the UK, Europe and the USA where I have exhibited regularly. My jewelry is created from silver, sometimes clay and mixed metals, with enamels and mixed gemstones. Themes of mythology, folklore and nature combine in narrative pieces of magic that are talismanic artworks to be worn or displayed. My sculptures, full of detail and story range from utterly whimsical and quirky characters, faery folk and anthropomorphic animals, to extravagant imaginative pieces with an atmosphere of vintage theatre and circus reminiscent of Eastern stop motion animation films... or fairytale, folklore forests and all the strange creatures that dwell there.