Barbara Kenny
The Blanche Ames Gallery warmly welcomes Barbara Kenny for her seventh solo show, ‘It’s My Love’ The heartfelt art of Barbara Kenny
BY JACK HOGAN JHOGAN@NEWSPOST.COM October 27, 2021
Barbara Kenny, who will be 83 this fall, has drawn much of the inspiration for her paint- ings from being on the move. In talking about the places that have informed her work, she recalled driving across the plains of Kansas. Living in Utah and Colorado. Leaving abruptly for California. Spending time in Texas. And eventually the New England foli- age on trips to Cape Cod. When she sits down to paint, it’s the scenery of her life that travels from the depths of her memory and through her veins before spilling onto her canvas. “The way I talk is in my art,” Kenny said. “This is my speaking.” Being on the move hasn’t always been by choice. Virginia laws that discriminated against gay couples threatened to strip Kenny and her partner of their mortgage and forced them to leave Fredericksburg, which brought them to Frederick.
It’s been in Frederick that Kenny has exhibited her work at galleries every two years since 2008, and it’s here that she will have what might be her final exhibit.
Kenny will be displaying her work from Nov. 7 through Jan. 2 at the Blanche Ames Gallery, located at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Frederick.
Her shows display a range of styles, emotions and colors. Some pieces of work may have taken her just minutes or hours, while others were completed over the course of a year or more. “It depends on how I feel at any given time,” Kenny said. “It can be very representational. It can be abstract. A lot of it is based in nature, in some way or another.”
Kenny began painting around the age of 21 after attending art school in Los Angeles, where she learned what paint to buy and what brushes to use. She’d always appreciated and had an affinity for art but was unsure if she’d be able to make a living from it. She knew she had the skill and that people enjoyed her work — especially after someone went out of their way to steal her paint- ing from the walls of a Salt Lake City bank, she said. “I thought that was quite a compliment.” After obtaining undergraduate and graduate degrees in psychology, she moved to Fredericksburg and worked 18 years in private practice using art to connect with people as a form of therapy. In the wake of the oppressive Virginia law, Kenny settled on Frederick because of the Unitarian church, and Carol Silkwood, who named the Blanche Ames gallery within the church would eventually be the one to revamp her painting career. “She kind of kicked me in the bottom and said, ‘I want you to enter some shows. You’ve got some talent,’” Kenny recalled.
Kenny has been a mainstay ever since.
Kenny doesn’t take a traditional approach to her shows. She goes against the grain, making her events a party, with tables of food and drinks and an atmosphere that welcomes people to bring their children. She wants attendees to enjoy themselves. “Not this solemn ‘this is an art gallery,’” Kenny said with a smirk, rolling her eyes and dropping her voice an ironic octave.
But, much like everything else during the pandemic, Kenny’s show will need to adjust to comply with COVID-19 recommendations, so there will be no party. Fewer people attend the church on Sundays, so her potential audience and customers have dwindled with the congregation.
Kenny’s partner is establishing an online presence to sell her work in December, but she acknowledged that the pandemic has made it difficult for artists like her to attract people to their galleries.
It’s not just about the loss in revenue, Kenny said. “I don’t care if they buy or not. I just want them to see it.”
Despite her love for painting and desire to show her work in public, this show may be one of Kenny’s last. She’s having a harder time exerting the energy necessary to put on the shows, and the labor that goes into framing her work — which has allowed her to keep prices low — has become arduous. Though the shows may cease, Kenny’s painting will not. “It’s my lifeblood,” she said. “It’s my spiritual path. It’s my love.”
THE FREDERICK NEWS-POST | PRIME TIME FREDERICK | NOVEMBER 2021 |
