photo by Jasiatic Usher
she/they
I am dedicated to creative practices that show up in birdwatching, collage, textile arts, plant-based cooking, and poetry writing. My adult learning has centered somatic movement, yoga, meditation, breathwork, contemplative practices, mixed media arts and art history. Much of my work centers gentle and affirming space for others to experiment and explore practices that support our emerging needs, dreams, and connections to one another.
I am deeply connected to cultivating spaces for folks to explore our wholeness, expand their perspectives, build new futures, and deepen our connections to authentic communities.
I am a land steward, creative maker, advocate, caregiver, and solution architect.
I am located in rural Northeast of the US.
kelley nicole palmer
Artist Statement
My creative practice is an offering made with an unwavering love for Black Femmes. This love exists beside the unwavering love I have for all things. I love Black Femmes in a way that is hard to articulate with words. I cherish it. I bask in it. I celebrate it. I am here in every way because of the Black Femme energy that flows through all of us. It is our shared connection to hope, joy, beauty, and creation. Everything I know about joy, love, community, forgiveness, and brilliance in the world is connected to Black Femmes.
Over my lifetime I have witnessed the world undervalue and disregard our existence. Over my lifetime I have simultaneously witnessed us be beautiful, soft, creative, joyful, resting. I celebrate that reality through collage. This is a reminder of the indomitable beauty of being a Black Femme. This is a love note to the love, joy, and expansive and radiant energy that comes from loving and being loved by Black Femmes. It is in the hearts and minds of our mothers, aunts, sisters, comrades, friends, and lovers we find pathways to liberation.
I have returned to the practice of collage and textile work to reclaim something, to awaken, and to return to myself, over and over again. These practices were with me when I felt most free, that all possibilities existed for me. In reclaiming them as creative practice, I renew that energy in my own life and experiences. Collage allows a story deep within me to emerge. It is my story and also the story of others who are also me. I bask in Stories about joy, pleasure, mistakes, regrets, love and liberation. I am collaging the Stories Of Black Femme Beinghood, unfolding alongside an unjust world.
Raised in the southeastern region of the US in the 1980s and 90s, my work centers and celebrates the Black Femmes who have stewarded me through, knowingly and unknowingly. My own experiences as a Black Woman ground my work. Many times what emerges in front of me is recognizing a story that I am feeling my way through. I create and share with the intention of acknowledging the sweetness and liberation available to us. I center our complex and forgotten richness as a reminder of what is possible.