Kelly Mills (b. 1989, United States) grew up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and found out at a young age that he is related to an American architect, Robert Mills. This influenced him and put him on a path of building and design. He studied architecture at Auburn University and realized after a year he wanted to pursue painting. After 6 years of painting and discovering new processes, he attended Savannah College of Art and Design where he studied fine art and participated in several group and solo exhibitions. Kelly takes each piece of work as its own and spontaneously creates something that is brand new. Like architecture, he builds up each painting in layers and dissects them, from there he chooses what to keep and what to paint over based on harmony and unity. Through this process he creates marks that have weight and become objects on the surface of the painting. The idea of the right amount of labor and thought justifies a finished piece.