Deborah Kennedy has exhibited in California and Europe in numerous solo and group shows. She is currently exhibiting in two shows including the Triton Museum’s 2009 Statewide Drawing and Print Competition and Exhibition. Recently, she received an award in the Indoor Sculpture Exhibition at the Santa Clara City Hall. In 2007, she exhibited in completed her fourth public artwork, Solar Sight, for Sunnyside Park in San Francisco. Kennedy presented an installation, The March of Eco-folly, at the Thacher Gallery in San Francisco in 2007. In 1999, she completed a solo exhibition, Nature Speaks, in the de Saisset Museum of Santa Clara University. She has been the recipient of numerous awards including a three-year California Arts Council grant to work with at-risk youth on graffiti murals and an Artist‘s Fellowship for Installation Arts from the Arts Council of Santa Clara County, in San Jose, California. Kennedy has presented at eco-art conferences and also teaches art and art history classes at the college and university level.
Deborah Kennedy’s artwork consists of conceptually-based installations and objects in galleries, museums and public spaces. Her work begin with questions, such as: What new ways of thinking can help us solve our environmental problems? Can we reform our technological systems so they operate in a bio-compatible manner? How is exposure to toxic chemicals affecting the health of human and animal populations? Questions, such as these, focusing on social and environmental dilemmas are the starting point of her work.
These questions propel her investigations. Today, the majority of her research is web-based, where she tracks rapidly advancing scientific research on endocrine disruptors, the amphibian decline and other areas of concern. This research informs her choice of images, materials, and methods. Therefore, her creative process and artwork are characterized by an on-going state of inquiry, extensive research, and a balance between concept and form.
Kennedy says, “I want to work at the growing edge, where we as a global community are struggling to create new visions that will help solve our environmental problems. My hope is that these new perceptions will help us change how we think about ourselves and our role in the world. Then, perhaps, we can begin to change our behaviors as individuals and larger communities.”
What did the Fellowship or Laureate mean to you at the time you received it?
Receiving the Artist Fellowship felt like a powerful vote of confidence. As a conceptual artist I often crave thoughtful feedback and responses from the larger world. The Fellowship supported and reinforced my artistic direction?creating conceptually-based installations and artwork focusing on social and environmental issues. Shortly after receiving the award, I had my first solo show at the de Saisset Museum, and the financial award helped me afford more expensive materials and technical support. This made the exhibit stronger and, I believe, a more powerful environmental statement. Thank you!
What do you do now? Has your art evolved or changed?
For a number of years, I have been working on a book of eco-poetry accompanied by detailed pen and ink illustrations and short essays. The poems focus on our environmental challenges and invite people to create a deeper relationship to the larger natural world. Recently, the Bay Area Poet?s Coalition gave me two awards for my poems; again, an exciting vote of confidence in my new area of endeavor. I presented a well-received reading of my poetry to The Willow Glen Poetry Project while projecting my illustrations. In addition, at the new San Jose City College Gallery, I created an installation using enlargements of my pen and ink illustrations and poems. I plan to create more work that explores the relationship between my two areas of endeavor?art and writing. I am almost finished with my manuscript and am seeking a publisher. To see my work, go to the albums on my website: http://www.deborahkennedyart.com/
What is one piece of advice you would give to an emerging artist?
Make art that matters to yourself and others and hire a good secretarial assistant if this is not your skill set.
Briefly, how would you describe the state of the arts locally, as well as national and beyond?
Diverse, vital, questioning, yet sadly underfunded here in the States