Jay Kelly began his career in graphic design, yet quickly emerged as a notable fine artist with his unique style of creating life-like portraits and collages out of books, photos, and magazines.

Kelly uses a range of collage material for their varied tones and content. For printed material, he uses vintage magazines, novels (both classics and the more obscure) and art history books. He chooses to paint with paper and various printed materials in order to achieve a unique depth to his work.