Artist Statement and Image Description

An artist and writer, Deborah Kennedy’s work is presented in the United States, Europe, and Mexico. Her recent book, Nature Speaks: Art and Poetry for the Earth (2016, White Cloud Press), combines her detailed earth-toned illustrations and poetry focusing on the ecological themes of our time. Nature Speaks won numerous awards including the 2017 Eric Hoffer and Silver Nautilus poetry book awards. Her art exhibitions include solo and group shows featuring paintings, drawings, photographs, and conceptually based installations focusing on ecological and social themes. She is noted for creating four large-scale installations on the Berlin Wall six months before it was torn down. This work was an inspiration to thousands who witnessed art in the service of social change and has been featured in books and newspapers in Germany and the United States.

Her work has been widely reviewed and she has received numerous grants and awards from Art Councils and museums in California. Kennedy lives in San Jose, California, and teaches art and poetry workshops. She presents poetry readings with her art to poetry, ecology, and spiritual groups.  Currently, she is a Creative Ambassador for the City of San Jose bringing the excitement of creative expression to the lives and public spaces of Santa Clara County residents through her innovative Broadside Art and Poetry Project. In November, she is presenting the work from her community project at WORKS gallery. The sanctuary also features altered books—envisioned as a library of life. Some of the sculpted books suggest various environmental dilemmas, including diminishing human reproductive health, the global water crisis, and the alarming declines of bees, amphibians, and birds. Other images are the holistic circle and a cosmic egg containing all the letters and numbers in our alpha-numeric system, suggesting the human intelligence and thinking needed to solve these problems.

This altered book is part of the "library of life" in Deborah Kennedy's installation Sanctuary. This book is a conceived of as a "memorial field guide to our oak trees." Our oak trees are threatened by numerous forces, including Sudden Oak Death pathogens, drought, wildfire, insect infestations, and competition from non-native plants. These majestic trees have long been keystone species in our California biospheres. Only large-scale interventions and serious efforts to stop our climate crisis can stop the precipitous loss of our oak trees.