Kelly Williams was born in Nashville, Tennessee in 1977 to a family of farmers, makers, and darn good cooks. Williams grew up watching her grandmother spend busy, yet profoundly quiet days as a small rural town's only seamstress, basket maker and quilter. In short, Williams grew up watching women make beautiful objects as an integral part of keeping house. Williams makes paintings, sculptures and prints drawings upon that early history and familiarity with textiles, thriftiness, passing time, and hard work. Williams earned a BA with honors in studio art from Vassar College and went on to receive a master's degree in fine art from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. While in college, Williams was selected to attend Yale's Summer School for Art in Norfolk, CT and upon graduating from SAIC, Williams was awarded a residency in Giverny, France on behalf of the Terra Foundation for American Art. Williams has served as an instructor at the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and Watkins College of Art in Tennessee. A participant in many group and solo shows, Williams has exhibited work with The Suburban in Milwaukee, The ICA at Maine College of Art in Portland, ME, Martine Chaisson Gallery in New Orleans, and more recently in Monte Castello di Vibio, Italy as part of an invitational residency program. Her work resides in the American Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan, collected by the State Department through their Art in Embassies Program, the Tennessee State Courthouse in Nashville, TN and the NexAir Corporate Headquarters in Memphis, TN among other locations. Williams currently lives in Nashville where she works from her studio in her backyard.