Mixed media and fiber artist Kelly Kozma combines drawing, painting, and hand embroidery with elements of chance and probability to create vivid, pattern-driven artwork. Describing her work as “extremely process-driven,” she breathes new life into traditional techniques such as embroidery and drawing.
Her creative process is half planned, half left to chance. Often, Kozma uses dice as a way of determining which colors to use, while other times she will draw a thousand tiny bricks by hand. According to her, combining these methods creates an organic rhythm that could not exist if she were making all of the choices solely on her own accord.
“I don’t really know where I fit into the contemporary art scene,” she admitted in an interview with Textile Artist. “Sometimes I wonder if I should be making things that are more on trend or would appeal to the masses. I still struggle with posts that don’t get many likes, and question how I could be cooler/better, essentially more popular–HA! But then I check in with myself and I know that this work is meaningful to me and that I’m telling stories. Storytelling is timeless, like textiles in general.”
Having received her BFA from Moore College of Art & Design, her untraditional work has been featured in several solo and group shows in Philadelphia as well as New York, Delaware, and Miami, Florida for Art Basel.”Sitting down and making art at the end of the day, grounds me and gives me time to breathe, process, and breakdown the day,” she says.
