Touching, holding, tapping, grabbing, hugging, kicking, caressing, feeling, squishing, hitting. When thinking about interactions between people as a starting point of my works, my focus is often directed towards limbs and bodies, in particular, the hands. How with our hands we can show the most delicate intimacy and the most violent hatred. These tools attached to our body carry out the most good and the most evil. I like to look at them, draw them, and exaggerate them.. Fingers and Toes is a series of ongoing works where I am thinking about the body, about hands and feet and fingers and toes, dramatising these instruments, letting them do things they maybe shouldn't, and in contexts they may have not been found before.







I am a visual artist working across a variety of textile processes. My practice looks at the intricacies and nuances of relationships and how our environments shape our interactions and treatments of each other. I examine emotions that come into existence in the space between two people: love, lust, desire, attachment, hatred and betrayal. My research is practice led, with materials and processes often informing the work, alongside archival and contemporary pop-culture visuals. Through soft sculpture processes such as sewing, tufting, embroidery, appliqué and felting, I look for the place between opposites where there is conflict or harmony. I use bright colours, a variety of textures, striking patterns and bold shapes to evoke a feeling of play and create vibrant commentaries on relationships and the spaces in which they exist. :))))
email: orlamkelly22@gmail.com