Gary Kelley was raised in a musical family, but he took after that one artistic uncle who attended the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Gary studied painting and design at the University of Northern Iowa, earning a BA in art, and his early career focused on graphic design and art direction until the late 1970’s, when painting and design experiences merged into a career as an illustrator.

Gary has illustrated twenty picture books, including The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Rip Van Winkle, The Necklace, Poe’s Tales of Mystery and Imagination and Macbeth for Young Readers. As an illustrator, his awards include 27 gold and silver medals from the Society of Illustrators in New York; he has also received Best-In-Show recognition in New York and Los Angeles Illustrators’ Exhibitions. In 2007, he was in inducted into the Society of Illustrators Fall of Fame.

One-man shows include the Academy of Art in Cincinnati, The University of the Arts (Philadelphia), Lustrare Gallery (New York), Every Picture Tells A Story (Santa Monica), The Kentucky Derby Museum, Creation Gallery in Tokyo and The Pablo Neruda Cultural Center-Bagnolet (Paris). Gary has also participated in group shows at The Norman Rockwell Museum (Stockbridge, MA), The Chicago Art Institute, The Museum of American Illustration (NY), School of Visual Arts (NY), The McNay Art Museum - San Antonio, Mystic Seaport Museum (CT) and Librarie Nicaise in Paris. Gary has lectured and taught widely at such venues as the Smithsonian, Hallmark Cards, the Norman Rockwell Museum and the Syracuse University graduate program.

Gary’s clients include Time, Rolling Stone, Atlantic Monthly, The New Yorker, Playboy, The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, Hartford Stage, Arena Stage, The Santa Fe Opera and Geffen Playhouse plus numerous advertising and design firms. Gary created the murals featuring famous authors for Barnes and Noble Bookstores nationwide. Has also worked for the NFL and the NBA and was the official artist for the 2002 Kentucky Derby.

Gary is proud to be among, in the words of JUXTAPOSE Magazine, that "shitload of kick-ass illustrators" employed by Fred Woodward when he was at Rolling Stone.