Please RSVP if you would like to attend the reception Friday November 14th

Born in San Diego, California, in a small country town called Jamul.

Shelly currently lives and works in 

'Jewel of the Hills' of San Diego County.

Shelly is a San Diego based artist whose love of painting began in the countryside, riding horses and connecting with nature. These early experiences continue to inspire her work, bringing a sense of movement, light, and quiet energy to each piece. Her paintings exist in the realm of abstract realism, where bold color meets intuitive, layered brushstrokes that reveal depth and emotion.

Before creating, Shelly engages in a quiet ritual of lighting candles, listening to music, and connecting with herself and her spirit team and angels. She approaches each piece from an openhearted, intuitive space, allowing her hand and the paint to guide one another. Through this process, she produces work that is ethereal and alive, inviting viewers to feel and reflect in their own way.

A visionary artist at heart, Shelly draws inspiration from dreams, nature, and subtle spiritual forces. Wings, feathers, hummingbirds, and feminine figures with a gentle, hopeful gaze often appear in her work, carrying a sense of grace and presence. With layered textures and vivid hues, she captures moments that feel both otherworldly and tangible, bridging the visible with the unseen. Ultimately, her art is about remembrance of beauty, wonder, and the quiet presence that still exists in the world. She hopes each painting encourages viewers to pause, breathe, and reconnect with the luminous forces around us... the ones that remind us we are part of something vast and infinite. 

Some of us are lucky enough to find inspiration early in life. I’m very grateful to be a part of this minority. My journey has not been one of degrees and technical education, but one of constant and ever-passionate experiences with the arts. Being raised by photographers and art connoisseurs, my youth was filled with color. I was fortunate to have a great degree of exposure to many of the art forms that I now hold so dearly. 

My mother supported and encouraged me as I experimented with new forms, from painting, to pottery, and photography. I shot my first wedding when I was very young, and quite honestly, I can’t remember an instance where I was without my camera. With time, I began a career as a concert photographer and pictorial editor. I enjoyed almost ten years of all-access passes, photographing musicians and groups who will remain in infamy for generations to come. 

Eventually, the arts took a backseat as some of life’s responsibilities took hold. I continued with photography on a very limited basis, but I did not have the time to create as I desired. 

In 2014, kiln-formed glasswork came into my life as an outlet for some of the challenges that I was facing. The simple act of cutting and breaking glass served well as a way to vent, but these acts eventually came to be something more. I sought the knowledge necessary to create the objects that circled in my mind, and slowly, I began to learn the craft. 

With this, I’ve been fortunate to have the opportunity to learn from so many talented and unique glass artists. Each has helped me to find greater passion for the art form, and for it, I am eternally grateful. 

My art is the culmination of some of the best and worst times of my life, combined with the mastery of skills, craft, and the attempt to manipulate light in ways that no one expects. My fascination with light has been a lifelong passion that is evident in every piece I make. When I start a new piece my desire is to control the light, and therefore the appearance of the piece, in a way that beckons you to see more around the comer and surprises at each tum. Much of my artistic journey stems from my desire to produce pleasing shapes that flow, reflect and refract the light like that little spot on the horizon that catches your eye, making you keep looking back to watch it dance on the edge. Glass is it as far as I’m concerned. Love it. One of the most interesting materials in the universe, it is structural yet fragile, transparent or opaque, seemingly unaffected by time.

An artist whose work embodies bold design and clear focus.
She holds a  B.A. in Painting and Printmaking from Herron
School of Art, Indiana University. Her 25 years in retail advertising
has garnered critical acclaim as a Creative Director and Graphic Designer.
In 2007, she took a beginning glass fusing class and fell in love.
She opened Fire Fusion Studio and has been showing, selling and teaching glass classes at her studio as well as two webinars through Glass Art MagazineRepresented by the Contemporary Fine Art Gallery in La Jolla,
California, she is in private collections in the US and England.
Her latest endeavor is stepping into the hot-shop and glassblowing.

PRESS-
SD Voyager Online Magazine – February 2023
Glass Art Magazine – January/February 2018 Studio Feature
A&E Magazine January 2018 Featured Projects – Memorial Glass
Handmade Business – March 2016San Diego Home/Garden Lifestyles – 2012  "Stars of San Diego"
San Diego Home/Garden Lifestyles – Interior Design Guide 2008
Decor and Style – Studio Feature November 2007

PUBLIC ART INSTALLATIONS:
Scripps Anderson Cancer Center – San Diego, California
Marriott – Downtown San Diego, California
Kaiser Permanente Hospital – San Diego, California
Kaiser Ridgeway Medical Center – San Diego, California
Dental Center – Sacramento, California
Kaiser Medical Offices – San Diego, California
UCI Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center – Irvine, California

WEBSITE
firefusionstudio.com

Like many other object makers, I am a collector of things, an assembler, an arranger. The techniques I employ to make my work are fraught with danger. 
Molten or sharp: glass and metal can burn you, cut you, scar you. The physical aspect of working, the sweat, the dance, the communion with your partner or your team... Its earthy and difficult. 
I like that.

Kathleen Mitchell was born in Jacksonville, North Carolina (1958) into a family that relocated frequently during her first 9 years. A lifelong maker of art, it has been said that her stegosaurus sculpture at the age of 6 was the best piece of pinched clay in all of Northeastern Pennsylvania. In 1967 her family settled in the multi-cultural city of San Diego, California. A love of Mexican folk-art compliments her proud Celtic heritage in both theme and image throughout her work. Kathleen continues to reside in San Diego with her  3 huge dogs, and an occasional visit from her guitar wielding son.