Art at the Oxford Hotel presents Kelly Thiel’s works on canvas through April 23, 2017.  The artist will attend the champagne opening on First Friday, March 3 from 5:30 – 8:00 pm.

 Kelly Thiel’s art tells women’s stories as personal narratives fascinate her.  She paints of subject’s lives, that of their parents, stories secret/hidden or in plain view.  She notes that the artwork comes from a compulsion to “get the stories out.”  Her art, in a bold palette, uses over-scale faces with little expression, perhaps a slight smile, with closed or intently focused eyes looking directly at the viewer.  The artist draws the narrative script near the intriguing faces as text, some legible, others illegible, but to Thiel, mandatory to complete the story told through art.

 A native of the southeastern US, Thiel relocated to the Pacific Northwest in 2014.  In addition to painting, she works in ceramics which have shown internationally in 2016 Shades of Clay invitational, Kusthuis Gallery, North Yorkshire, United Kingdom; Unwedged, Pottery Northwest, Seattle; Menagerie, Baltimore Clayworks, Baltimore, MD; solo show at Natural Edge Furniture and a Jan. 2017 group show, New Year, New Art, at Franklin Crossing, both in Bend.

 The artist brought considerable prior experience to Central Oregon with exhibitions in Mississippi, North Carolina, Georgia, New York, New Jersey and other locations. Her work appears in numerous publications and received Honorable Mention, Piccolo Spoleto Fine Craft Show, May ’07. Thiel, in 2014, co-founded in Bend a studio for creatives, The Wilds. See www.kellythielstudio.com.