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.

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 and strategy 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 eight countries; 70+ works have entered collections in the United States, Canada, Japan, the Philippines, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Luxembourg, and Germany.

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 the 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, and at the private residence of Luxembourg's Ambassador to the United States, in Luxembourg.

In 2027, her first-ever solo exhibition will debut to a global audience in Japan during cherry blossom season, followed by solo exhibitions in Washington, DC in May and Virginia in October.

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 conscious and subconscious. Everything has energy. The line reveals it.

ARTIST RESIDENCIES

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

NOTABLE 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.

The Ambassador of Luxembourg to the United States
August 2026; Private Residence, Luxembourg

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

[2026] FEMME Art Fair, Washington, DC — August 2026
[2026] Arts Club of Washington, Washington, DC — May 2026
[2026] Calloway Fine Art Gallery, Washington, DC — May 2026
[2025] Salon Collaboration with The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC — April 2025
[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  
[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.