Shelley works mostly in encaustic and acrylic-based mixed media. She comes to art via a childhood of museum trips and art classes, then a young adulthood of poetry. A lifelong effort to express how she processes what she sees has translated into an in-depth exploration of materials and line and shape in repetition. Her work often experiments with how mediums respond to one another and portray the same thing differently. After several years of exploring various mixed media and varnishing methods, Shelley fell in love with encaustic painting, which uses wax as the carrying agent for color. She develops her own medium with local beeswax and mixes her own colors using ground pigments made from minerals. She often uses references in her work: photographs she’s taken and printed on silk or mono prints she’s made with ink. This layering is an extension of her past work and her love of poetry. Allusions and juxtaposition are written elements she likes to use in her visual work. Her work has been selected for two solo shows and multiple juried group shows and is part of permanent corporate collections in hospitals, hotels, and restaurants. Her current galleries span from local and hometown GA galleries to NC, FL, and IL.