I met Caridad Sierra Kennedy at an Art show in 2019. I had seen her work at different shows before, and we may have met or seen each other, but it was not until we started talking one afternoon and she introduced herself to me that I was able to connect the woman with her work. After that day we started following each other on Instagram and I began to see her and her work at other shows, and then 2020 came and everything went haywire in our world and things were shut down. But through all of that time, she was still posting on Instagram, still creating and still putting her vision out into the world. She created a series of work inspired by the sunsets she was experiencing in a new way through the lens of her windows and areas close to home and seeing her posts of Pandemic Sunsets gave a richness and connection to the lives of those of us who were experiencing our own worlds in new ways. She also participated in various shows online that were curated specifically to bring art and light to people during a very dark time.
Last fall we sat down for a meal together, something that we'd been talking about doing but hadn't been able to schedule. Sitting outside on a lovely early evening we had a chance to talk more in depth. She has a BFA in Fine Arts (Painting) from Newark College of Arts and Sciences, Rutgers University, and a Masters Degree in Art Therapy from NYU, and she is a mother and a professional Art Therapist, with a full schedule that would keep someone else too busy for creating art of her own, but she carves out time for herself and has shown widely in the New York Metropolitan area. She told me that her son encourages her because he likes what she creates and he is proud of her, and appreciates knowing that she is an Artist.
Her work is inspired by her experience and connection with the natural world, and after our dinner together she sent me a selection of photographs from her series "The Sierra Vistas". A word play of her name and the natural world they embrace and encompass and contemplate, these diptychs reflect her own consciousness and experience of the natural world and the part it plays in healing, prayer and meditation, and the historical significance and role of diptychs as devotional objects. In her own words, "'The Sierra Vistas Series' is the wonder filled story of a stranger in a strange land and every stranger in this strange land. . . . It is the quest to integrate the body, mind and spirit through visual means."
Now that things have begun to open up more fully, I'm looking forward to seeing more of Caridad and her work in person. The art she creates is so connected to her feelings about the natural world and to her seeking for connection with that world and the world of the spirit and of holistic connection and belonging, and that is something that I think we all need, especially now.
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