In this series of marine still life image Kelly displays her artistic strengths as a contemporary photographic artist. The images are placed on an aqua and sand background that is part abstract painting and is part underwater sand bar. The shells, coral, and starfish images are dramatic individual frontal details. Each object has been manipulated to create a soft aqua tone that is painterly without losing realism. There is a serene strength in the objects that is still pleasing to the eye. “I wanted to create the illusion that we were looking down into the water at the shells sitting on soft sand,” says Kelly, “our vision is colored by clear aqua water. But the scene is not necessarily real, and the objects floating above it all are larger than life.”