ARTIST STATEMENT

I use a single, continuous line to reveal the energy that connects us all. It moves without lifting, the way a life moves through years, carrying everything it passes. Whether the subject is a flower, a place, a feeling, or an ordinary object, everything holds life, and I try to capture that in my art.

I am a self-taught artist, and I have been painting since childhood. As a first-generation Filipina American, I was discouraged from becoming an artist. I persisted because I wanted to capture the beauty that surrounds us. The determined act of continuing, of not lifting the brush, became my artist philosophy.

I believe the line embodies a delicate balance, where opposites become complementary and interdependent, as in nature. The line does not distinguish between opposites. Instead, it travels through them: joy and sorrow, light and shadow, life and death. The line holds them all on the same curve, and reveals that they are never truly separate. We may need sorrow to truly feel bliss, age to appreciate youth. One side gives the other its meaning.

Some may think the joy in my work is naive. It isn't. The brightness I strive to share knows its opposite, beauty held gently because it is fleeting, happiness drawn against the shadow that gives it shape. A bloom is moving because it falls.

Most of all, the line is connection. It is the unbroken thread between people, between cultures, between the bright surface of a life and the weight we carry quietly beneath it. We are more alike than we appear, and closer than anyone knows.

I spent over two decades in the analytical world of technology, strategy, government, and law before returning to the studio full-time. I do not see those years as separate from my art. The line is where the two halves meet, the analytical mind and the feeling one, the subconscious and the conscious, joined by the line between them.

We all need hope. We all need love. I try to catch moments of happiness and connection that, though often overlooked, remind us of a simple yet vital truth: that we are all connected during our brief time on earth.

ARTIST BACKGROUND

Kelly Dinglasan Minton is a Washington, DC-based artist whose continuous-line paintings are held in public and private collections across six countries.

In October 2025, The Arts Club of Washington (est.1916), the oldest nonprofit arts organization in DC, acquired her work for its Permanent Collection. This was first time in the institution's 100+ year history that a living artist's work has been added to its Permanent Collection. Her paintings also hang at the Royal Norwegian Ambassador's Residence alongside Edvard Munch. A solo exhibition is scheduled at the Arts Club of Washington in May 2027.

Kelly is a self-taught, Filipina-American artist who has painted since childhood. She works from studios at the Jackson Art Center in Georgetown and in Kalorama, Washington, DC. In May 2026, following a 20+ year career in senior strategic roles across technology, strategy, law, and public service, she transitioned to a full-time studio practice. Since 2023, 60+ works have entered collections in the United States, Japan, the Philippines, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, and Germany.

Her practice centers on a single, unlifted line that moves across the canvas the way life moves through years, without distinguishing between opposites: joy and sorrow, the analytical and the intuitive, the conscious and subconscious. Everything has energy. The line reveals it.

ARTIST RESIDENCIES

Artist-in-Residence, Jackson Art Center, Washington, DC, June 2023–present

PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

Arts Club of Washington, Permanent Collection
October 2025; First work by a living artist added to the Permanent Collection

The Royal Norwegian Ambassador's Residence
December 2025; Washington, D.C.

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

[2026] Arts Club of Washington, Washington, DC — May 2026
[2026] Calloway Fine Art Gallery, Washington, DC — May 2026
[2025] Transformer DC Exhibition, Washington, DC — November 2025
[2025] Private Exhibition, Venice, Italy — October 2025
[2025] Permanent Collection Acquisition, Arts Club of Washington — October 2025
[2025] Union Market By Design, Washington, DC — October 2025  
[2025] Salon Exhibition, Sheridan-Kalorama, DC — April 2025
[2024] Salon Exhibition, Sheridan-Kalorama, DC — September 2024
[2024] Transformer DC Exhibition, Washington, DC — November 2024
[2023] Jackson Art Center Open Studios, Washington, DC — June 2023–present
[2023] Online Portfolio Exhibition, kellydinglasan.com — June 2023–present

[2000–2006] Exhibitions in San Francisco, including emerging artists programs in Dolores Park, Mission District, and ArtSpan-affiliated spaces. Art studio in Telegraph Hill provided by member of the SF MOMA Board.