Shelly Lependorf was born in Philadelphia, PA and still resides and works there. She studied at the Philadelphia Studio School of Art and Design and at the Philadelphia College of Art, where she received a full scholarship. She has exhibited at galleries and museums throughout. the U. S., and with other MADI artists in Italy, France and Spain. Her art hangs at the Canadian Consulate in Montreal, at hotels in Paris, in the Suhag collection in Delhi India, and in corporate collections of NBC, RCA, United Airlines among many others.

An art critic wrote about Lependorf's "Harmonics" series, "Each of these pieces holds language insomuch as are akin to semaphore flags. There is something incredibly ancient here, yet also as if they had just been shot from some distant dimension into our own reality sparkling in their newness."