Susan Kelley Harkey is also known as Susan Kelley and Susan Checkal Kelley. Her graduate and postgraduate studies included work in Portraiture, Illustration, and Graphic Design with an emphasis on Rendering. She took extensive Rendering classes with Jon Meyer through the Industrial Design Department at Cal State University, Long Beach to insure her ability to create a solid reality through her imagination. This ability translates into images that create a believable world using photoshop and/or drawing and painting techniques. Her Master\'s degree included a semester special studies in Portraiture in The Tate Gallery in London, National Portrait Museum in London, the British museum in London and the Scottish National Gallery.
In addition to an ongoing private portrait commissions for an international clientele, Susan has done illustrations for such clients as McDonald Charities, Los Angeles Children\\\'s Hospital, NBC Television, Reader\\\'s Digest, Galoob Toys, Maranatha! Music, National Medical Home Care, Memorial Hospital Long Beach, California, Warehouse Records and she illustrated two books for the Seventh Day Adventist\\\'s Church, Pine knoll Publications authored by Graham Maxwell, one of which is published in English, Russian and Spanish. Her most recent commercial illustrations were for Strictly Vermont Candle Company and QNEK productions and she continues her portraiture photography and painting for a private clientele. Her original art has been on display in Los Angeles exhibitions at the Los Angeles Museum of Science and Industry; Foote, Cone and Belding; the
Fashion Institute; California State University and the Vermont State Building in Montpelier.
Susan lives in Northern Vermont with her husband, Kevin Harkey, a cartoonist (kevinharkeybooks.com) and family.