About Me…
Lori and Crystabella Studio
Meet Lori…
Hi, I’m Lori Poff Kellogg, an intuitive artist and creative mentor who learned that paint can say the things words cannot.
For most of my life, I was the helper. As a mom, a special education teacher, and then a social worker placing families experiencing homelessness into housing, I was the one who could always figure things out. I was proud of being dependable, but somewhere along the way I stopped hearing my own voice.
One of my first sketches in that old planner from Easter, 2020… Can still see the ruled lines in the background.?
Then the pandemic closed every door I relied on. I couldn’t find housing, services, or even food for the families in my care, and for the first time, I couldn’t help. I couldn’t even get to the batting cages to let off steam. So I dug out an old planner and a box of my students’ crayons and started to draw. I wasn’t trying to make something beautiful. I was trying to breathe.
One sketchbook became three. Colored pencils became watercolor, then paint. I kept it a secret because it felt a little weird, but I was constantly surprised by what showed up on the page. My art was explaining me to myself. When it uncovered more than I could carry alone, I began therapy and paired each step of healing with a painting. Layer by layer, I found my voice again.
“I wasn’t trying to make something beautiful…I was trying to breathe”
Lori Poff Kellogg
How I Paint
Every painting begins on a thrifted canvas, because nobody’s afraid of ruining a $4.99 yard-sale find (Can you see the figure of a woman that this painting started out as?) I cover it in a messy “freedom” layer where I add color, stencils, and write the words I can’t say out loud where no one will ever read them. Next I keep painting over them until an image rises to the surface. Usually it’s a woman: an archetype, a goddess, a part of me I’m meeting for the first time. The image usually comes with an inner message.
The message of this painting is, if you know me, you know that IRL I've had a fear of birds for years. So this is a scene I can't imagine happening for real. This year has taught me a lot about self-trust. About staying with grief instead of running from it. About sharing worry instead of carrying it alone. About allowing myself to be seen. About learning that difficult emotions won't destroy me.
Maybe that's why this woman appears so peaceful. She isn't fighting the peacock or pushing it away. It isn't sitting on some high perch far away from her. She's simply allowing it to be there with her.
So this painting reminds me that healing is about being willing to stay with what we once feared.
Why Crystabella Studio?
Crystabella is one of those women. In one hand she holds a healing symbol and in the other a compass, because she’s in charge of her own healing and her own direction. Her starry crown claims her sovereignty, and her jeweled third eye trusts her inner wisdom, something I’m still learning to do. The snake on her arm symbolizes shedding our old skins. I named my studio after her because she reminds me that transformation and beauty aren’t meant to be kept to ourselves.
“My art exists to explain me to myself.
I share it because I’ve learned that I’m not the only one who needs that.”
Lori Poff Kellogg
Why I Share It…
My art exists because it explains me to myself. I share it because I’ve learned that I’m not the only one who needs that.
After training as a Creatively Frequency Coach with Whitney Freya, I now help women, especially in seasons of change, recover their own voice through creativity. I don’t teach people to paint pretty pictures. I teach them to paint their way home, and no art experience is needed.
If we ever meet, there’s a good chance I’ll have paint on my hands and laughter in my voice, because I’m still learning too.
Ready to begin? Join Creative Connections, my monthly letter of paintings, stories, and gentle invitations to hear your own voice.
