Emily Kaelin is a painter and mixed media artist who earned a BFA from Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design in Denver, CO in 2008, and her MFA from the Burren College of Art in Co. Clare, Ireland in 2011. She has been exhibiting her work both nationally and internationally for over a decade. In addition to painting and art-making, Emily creates experimental electronic music and has worked as an art educator and graphic designer.
Though the phrase "high-functioning" could be used to describe her outward presentation regarding living with bipolar, anxiety, and other mental disorders, Emily’s art practice is based specifically and mindfully around the concept that art-making, both in process and in tangible result, allows her a natural (yet carefully and incessantly developed) method for managing the consistent challenges with her mental health and wellbeing; art and creation are considered more than mere hobbies, or more than simple professions, goals, or academic subjects. They are rather an intentional life-practice used as a crucial and necessary survival method. Her work is very much a way to find meaning, beauty, and worthiness in a physical reality where she often feels bereft of meaning, full of pain, and unworthy in the eyes of the world in which she lives.
