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OPS Feature Artist
Inspiring conservation and awareness through art
OPS is often approached by artists around the world seeking to contribute to both OPSā mission and public awareness about issues such as wildlife conservation, climate change, and protecting oceans and marine life.
In response, we are excited to launch our inaugural āOPS Feature Artistā partnership program that will feature a different artist on a rotating basis. A few times a year, OPS will highlight the work of a profiled artist, showcasing his or her artwork to motivate and ignite the activist in each of us.
OPS believes in the power of art and imagery. By featuring the amazing artwork of āartivistsā around the globe, we are committed to inspiring individual action and fostering collaborative solutions to the Planetās most pressing issues.
All media and artistic platforms are invited for consideration. Contact us to become the next OPS Feature Artist.
Kelly is a Florida-based artist and illustrator who spent her childhood exploring the wildlands of the Sunshine State. Inspired and mission-driven with a passion for education and storytelling, she strives to achieve both through her vivid art and imagery.Ā Kelly’s art career, rooted in a curiosity of the world around her, was cultivated at an early age through pencil and paper until she began painting in early middle school. After graduating from the University of Florida, she dedicated her personal and professional life to sharing the stories of science and the natural world through vibrant paintings, art classes, and other community outreach.
Kelly has worked with organizations such as The Florida Aquarium, Coral Restoration Foundation, and the Hillsborough County School System to uplift science and the natural world through art. Most recently, she partnered with Biscayne National Park, creating an immersive educational art exhibit featuring the amazing wildlife and natural heritage of this unique coastal ecosystem to support local conservation efforts.Ā Biscayne National Park protects a rare combination of critically endangered habitats including mangrove forests, seagrass beds, barrier islands, and coral reefs.
Since 2018, Kelly and her partner Blake have been developing educational art experiences through Canvas of the Wild that combines science, technology, and art for the community to enjoy. Most recently, the “Sea of Connections” mural project at iPrep Academy in downtown Miami-Dade is uplifting marine science to students K-12 through an interactive 2,000 square foot mural and linked knowledge base.
Kelly’s mission is to experience and share the stories of nature to connect people more deeply with the environment so that they can become passionate advocates for the protection and restoration of our planetary home for the next generation.
All artwork featured here is available for purchase.* A portion of the proceeds from these prints supports the mission of OPS. Ā Each and every purchase helps to make the work of OPS possible!
To see Kelly’s other creations and original artwork, follow her @kellyofthewild and @canvasofthewild or visit her website.
All canvas posters have a slight texture with a semi-gloss finish and use high-quality inks to protect your fine art poster against UV damage. All materials are archival quality, pigment based inks. Digital printing on premium quality artist-grade canvas increases the durability compared to paper posters.
*Listed prices include shipping and handling.
Unframed Poster on Canvas
The Tiger Shark is a bold and curious being, often found cruising along shallow reefs and visiting the outer fringes of the bay, utilizing their iconic tiger pattern for camouflage as they explore new and exciting seascapes.
The shallow depths in which Biscayne Tigers are found harbor some of the oldest wrecks in the United States, dating back to the 1700s. These wrecks once marred the seafloors with their hard edges, but over time, began to decompose and crumble to their infrastructure, effectively returning to nature.
In their return to nature, these man-made structures are actually helping conservation by providing new structures for young colonies of critically endangered corals and sponges to form, including the Staghorn and Elkhorn corals, some of which can be seen in this piece; having completely overtaken a porthole of a wreck, from which you are viewing this intrigued Tiger Shark.
Print Size and Pricing
18.0 x 24.0 inchesĀ $55.99 USD
Unframed Poster on Canvas
The King of the Castle is hot stuff. He has an air of confidence about him but also is a creative genius, using his thousands of color-changing cells called chromatophores to create remarkable transformations of pattern and color to impress his love.
Octopuses use both their color changing and shape-shifting abilities to communicate both their mood and intent to other Octopuses, often using vivid colors to attract attention. Male Common Octopuses spend the majority of their life in isolation and typically live for three to five years. Only upon reaching maturity will he seek out a lovely lady Octopus to share in the creation of new life.
Print Size and Pricing
16.0 x 20.0 inches $55.99 USD
Unframed Poster on Canvas
The Queen of hearts knows what she wants and loves fiercely. She passionately protects her brood, dedicating her last months of life to carefully and lovingly oxygenating the water around her nearly 200,000 eggs, and not eating once throughout the whole process.
Just as her babies hatch from their small teardrop-shaped eggs sacks hung like jewels, seen in the bottom right corner, she will help them one more time on their journey by blowing them through her siphon to disperse them in the water column. It’s fitting thinking of this scenario as a poetic tragedy, but every female octopus in the world will commit her life to love before she passes on, single-handedly, (or eight handedly) bringing the next generation of charismatic Octopuses to our ocean.
Print Size and Pricing
16.0 x 20.0Ā inches $ 55.99 USD
Unframed Poster on Canvas
Loggerheadās are the second largest sea turtle found in the world, and one of the most common nesters on Florida beaches thanks to passionate conservationists and citizen scientists like yourself. While visiting the park in January, we had the opportunity to see a massive loggerhead sea turtle appear near Boca Chita Key, the iconic and historic lighthouse built by Mark Honeywell in the 1930s, which guides boats to the beauty and wonders of the park.
Lighthouses have long since been seen as beacons of hope, guidance, and protection to people, but in this piece, Boca Chita represents the potential of a bright future for the thousands of species that depend on a healthy Biscayne Bay, if only we choose to see the importance of all life as integral to the future of humanity.
Print Size and Pricing
18.0 x 24.0 inches $55.99 USD
Unframed Poster on Canvas
The Fowey Rocks Lighthouse, also called the eye of Miami, is the third lighthouse found in Biscayne National Park and the reliable beacon that has guided ships to and from the port of Miami since 1878, helping them avoid the hazardous shallow reef that surrounds the bay. Even with its guiding light, over the years, ships have wrecked near Fowey Rocks Lighthouse, an unfortunate turn of events for the sailors, but one that has created new habitat for baby corals to grow on and for bottom dwellers like Nurse Sharks to enjoy as shelter!
These sharks are usually yellowish-tan to dark brown to camouflage in with their sandy bottom habitat, and as adults, they can reach lengths of 8 feet long and weigh over 200 pounds! Found throughout the Florida coastline, Nurse Sharks are normally nocturnal, meaning they hunt for their favorite snacks like crustaceans, mollusks, and stingrays under cover of darkness before returning to their preferred cave to nap away the day with a friend or two!
Fun fact, they love to cuddle with other Nurse Sharks, and it’s so adorable to see! Nurse Sharks are not an endangered species. Still, recent studies have concluded there has been a decline in their population here in Florida with the development of coastal regions, mainly thought to be linked to the loss of their crucial nursery habitat, Mangroves.
Print Size and Pricing
18.0 x 24.0 inchesĀ $55.99 USD
Unframed Poster on Canvas
Mr. Big captures the charisma of the Great White Shark, focusing on connecting you with the shark’s spirit of curiosity through it’s beautiful blue eyes. Experience the color, and life that is found there, and feel the piece come to life when you display it on your wall either in a frame or as is!
Print Size and Pricing
18.0 x 24.0 inchesĀ $55.99 USD
Unframed Poster on Canvas
Meet the Shortfin Mako, little brother to the Great White! While Mr. Big & Great may have all the brawn, this feisty shark has speed…and a lot of it. Reaching up to 45 MPH the Mako uses this acceleration to burst through schooling Mackerel, Swordfish, and Tuna. Even more spectacular, it can propel itself over 20 feet out of the water in an immense display of acrobatic strength – That’s the height of a two-story building in case you need a reference.
Print Size and Pricing
16.0 x 24.0 inchesĀ $55.99 USD
Framed Limited Edition Print
The Tiger Shark is a bold and curious being, often found cruising along shallow reefs and visiting the outer fringes of the bay, utilizing their iconic tiger pattern for camouflage as they explore new and exciting seascapes.
The shallow depths in which Biscayne Tigers are found harbor some of the oldest wrecks in the United States, dating back to the 1700s. These wrecks once marred the seafloors with their hard edges, but over time, began to decompose and crumble to their infrastructure, effectively returning to nature.
In their return to nature, these man-made structures are actually helping conservation by providing new structures for young colonies of critically endangered corals and sponges to form, including the Staghorn and Elkhorn corals, some of which can be seen in this piece; having completely overtaken a porthole of a wreck, from which you are viewing this intrigued Tiger Shark.
Print Size and Pricing
17.0 x 22.0 inchesĀ $350 USD
20.0 x 27.0 inches $600 USD
Framed Limited Edition Print
The connection between beings happens when the eyes meet. Here, a young sea turtle invites you into her sanctuary to experience the vibrancy and life found on coral reefs. Its complex living architecture acts as a haven for thousands of rare and unique species found nowhere else in the world, sheltering thousands of species, and providing key habitat for mother sea turtles to rest in preparation for egg-laying on nearby beaches.
Print Size and Pricing
17.0 x 22.0 inchesĀ $350 USD
20.0 x 27.0 inches $600 USD
Framed Limited Edition Print
We view the world through one lens regularly, the lens we were born with, the set of values, perspectives, and things we think are important, all instilled in us from a young age. However, the reality is there exists a kaleidoscope of perspectives outside of humanity, and this lush environment is one such whimsical viewpoint you can see for yourself just below the waves of Florida.
Size and Pricing
17.0 x 22.0 inches $350 USD
20.0 x 27.0 inches $600 USD
Framed Limited Edition Print
A mother’s love knows no bounds, her duty to gently guide her little one into adulthood and keeping them safe in an ever-changing world drives her every moment. To shelter their growing calf, manatee moms seek the protection of mangrove forests and the lush fields of seagrasses that are found amongst their roots.
These increasingly rare forests are a keystone species, filtering the water that flows between their roots, creating purified regions within the bay for baby manatees, young rays, sharks, and fish species to learn and grow safely.
Size and Pricing
17.0 x 22.0 inches $350 USD
20.0 x 27.0 inches $600 USD
Framed Limited Edition Print
The King of the Castle is hot stuff. He has an air of confidence about him but also is a creative genius, using his thousands of color-changing cells called chromatophores to create remarkable transformations of pattern and color to impress his love. Octopuses use both their color-changing and shape-shifting abilities to communicate both their mood and intent to other Octopuses, often using vivid colors to attract attention. Male Common Octopuses spend the majority of their life in isolation and typically live for three to five years. Only once reaching maturity, will he seek out a lovely lady Octopus to share in the creation of new life.
Size and Pricing
17.0 x 21.0 inches $350 USD
20.0 x 25.0 inches $600 USD
Framed Limited Edition Print
The Queen of hearts knows what she wants and loves fiercely. She passionately protects her brood, dedicating her last months of life to carefully and lovingly oxygenating the water around her nearly 200,000 eggs, and not eating once throughout the whole process.
Just as her babies hatch from their small teardrop-shaped eggs sacks hung like jewels, seen in the bottom right corner, she will help them one more time on their journey by blowing them through her siphon to disperse them in the water column. It’s fitting thinking of this scenario as a poetic tragedy, but every female octopus in the world will commit her life to love before she passes on, single-handedly bringing the next generation of charismatic Octopuses to our ocean.
Size and Pricing
17.0 x 21.0 inches $350 USD
20.0 x 25.0 inches $600 USD
Framed Limited Edition Print
Meet the “Queens” of Florida, three beautiful ladies from the Angelfish, Parrotfish, and Triggerfish family, and all wearing their own variation of a crown. These girls love to catch up and chat on the reef and bringing the vibrancy of the reef to life.
Size and Pricing
24.0 x 42.0 inches $750 USD
34.0 x 58.0 inches $1,200 USD
Framed Limited Edition Print
Color, movement, and life; these three aspects are the focus of āCoral Meadows,” where the reefsā vibrant hues in the foreground show off a menagerie of Florida sponges, hard corals, and a complex living environment found in few places.
What truly gives life to the reef and this piece is the current. Using movement and defined strands of blue, I created a feeling of calming energy that flowed across the work and guided you through this expanse of pristine coral fields.
Size and Pricing
24.0 x 42.0 inches $750 USD
34.0 x 58.0 inches $1,200 USD
Framed Limited Edition Print
āTreasureā represents the most pristine version of what our coral reef has been in the past, and what it could be again if we take notice of the impacts on our precious American Reef. Today, our reef suffers from poor water quality due to sewage leakage, which is also a health hazard to people, and the aggressive āStony Coral Tissue Loss Diseaseā that has consumed a large portion of the remaining endangered stony corals.
These corals include Pillar Coral (The green coral seen in the left corner of the piece with the Eel) and Staghorn (The orange coral on the right). Stony corals like these are the reef builders of this habitat, over time creating rock-like mounds for other life to grip and form. Without the continued protection and reintroduction of these types of corals on our reef, we would witness the disintegration of a 7,000-year-old coral reef system in less than 100 years, unless we can learn to shift the fundamental values of our society from that of consumption to that of sustainability, accountability, and balance with nature.
Size and Pricing
15.0 x 25.0 inches $350 USD
19.0 x 32.0 inches $600 USD
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