Artist
Colleen E. Kennedy M.F.A
An visual artist who currently lives in Florence, South Carolina.
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The artworks created mirror the natural world I have encountered during my adventures. Thus using a combination of earthy materials, including river silt and farmed cotton of the South, locally recovered earth, fabrics, materials, and found objects collected from ventures into the swamps to tie the work back to the earth and environment of my inspiration.
As we move through our ‘homes’ or places we call as such, sometimes these imprints that we leave behind can be damaging on the environment or the people we encounter; with good, bad, or indifferent intentions. When one wanders, we find ourselves home, and we find wholesomeness and honesty in the nature of our community that we create. One feels deep connections not only with nature, but with the people and animalia that we come across, affecting one another to harbor roots, nurturing our ‘homes’. While traversing through the wilds, I feel as though my shoes melt into the ground and I dissolve like dust into the environment around me. The vividness of life and sense of ‘home’ develops stronger when surrounded by the quiet, purposeful rustle of nature or the stillness of a vibrant city at night. It is in those fleeting moments that you are reminded not just of your impact on the world, but of your mortality and the thin veil of the imaginary. Everything is connected and I wish to explore both the personal, emotional, and cultural imprints we make upon our local and international environments, as well as the often invisible and fragile connections that exist between man and environments, thus affecting our individual sense of ‘place’, ‘origin’, and ‘belonging’ within the world...
Education
2009 - 2015
Francis Marion University (FMU) BS Art Education
2019 - 2021
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) MFA in Painting
Awards / Commissions
2016
Professional artist Commission Awarded. Created/painted a southern-themed mural for Straw-Hat Distillery, Florence, South Carolina
2014
2012
Graphic Design commission. Designed Logo and letterhead for national afterschool program, Performing Arts and Sciences Academy (PASA) located in Lake City, South Carolina
Art Trail Gallery - Visualicious, Emerging Artist Recognition
2012
Francis Marion University Art Student Scholarship recipient
Publications
2014
Art/illustrations Published Francis Marion University Snow Island Review
2012
Published Author Francis Marion University Snow Island Review
Exhibitions
Solo
2015
Francis Marion University – Florence, South Carolina
Group
2021
2013
2011
'Rhizome' Exhibition - Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Gallery
Art Trail Gallery – Florence, South Carolina
Art Trail Gallery – Florence, South Carolina