Grace Riley was born into a creative family with a history in the visual arts. Her father was a successful commercial artist and later emerged into opening his own advertising firm. Grace learned from her father what it took to be a true professional. She realized that her calling was to be an artist just like her father. Grace spent almost 20 years in advertising for multi-national companies. This introduced her to a world of computers, which immediately replaced her pencil with a mouse. Grace's inspiration comes from many aspects of life. She says that shapes and colors open up her creativity .