We were lucky to catch up with Annette Kennedy recently and have shared our conversation below.

Annette, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

I’ve always been a creative soul and have used that gift in everything I’ve done, whether it was in a domestic capacity, a hobby or professionally. Some of the ways that manifested itself for me was in creative problem solving and embellishing or improving the norm, besides the joy of using my hands to make or grow things. I previously worked as a dental lab technician, a cosmetologist and a retail merchandizer. I’ve enjoyed sewing, singing, hiking, photography, gardening, folk art painting and traveling over the years. I took up art quilting in 2003, while living in Colorado, and quickly started entering shows, winning awards and got invited to exhibit my work, lecture and teach my techniques locally and around the country. In 2005 I dared to call myself an artist and started my art business full time. I say “dared” because I don’t have an art degree, however, I really love learning about and experimenting with ways to improve my art, and finding ways to get it out into the world. I believe just viewing beautiful art can transport a person into a more peaceful, healing space.

Annette, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I grew up in Southern Ohio and married my Junior High School sweetheart. We were a military family for 20 years, living in Maryland, Virginia, California and Puerto Rico. In 2001 my husband retired from the military and took a job in Boulder, Colorado. We lived in Longmont, which is near Boulder and North of Denver, for 19 years. The beauty of the mountains, and hikes in Rocky Mountain National Park and the surrounding areas really inspired me, first in photography, which soon flowed into using those photos to translate into art quilts and starting my art business. In 2021 we moved to Kyle, TX, just South of Austin, to be near our son and family. Now the Texas Hill Country is my inspiration.

I consider myself a Fiber Artist, however my art is a combination of fiber, dye, inks and paint. I am inspired by the beauty in Nature and its ability to bring grounding, calm, clarity and joy. A hike in the woods can really clear the cobwebs out of my brain and allows me to focus on creative ideas.

Art Quilting has been what I consider to be my main art expression, but I have also eco-dyed and printed silk scarves with natural dyes, leaves and flowers on the side of quilting. It was very satisfying to work with actual bits of nature in making the scarves, plus they sold well too. I had a dedicated dye kitchen in my studio in Colorado for them, which I don’t have space for in Texas, so I have replaced dying scarves with Silk Fusion Art. My art quilts are time and labor intensive so having something else to do that is less demanding creates a nice balance for me.

I create pictorial pieces that combine my love of nature, photography and painting. Most are landscapes, but I also do florals and architectural images. I usually work from photos I have taken that give the art a sense of place. I use textile paint to add visual depth and small details. I think of them as a cross between a quilt and a painting.

Silk Fusion is a bit like paper making in that I am using fluffy silk roving and textile medium to make a two-dimensional piece of art. I can combine silk ribbon, yarn and threads, along with other fibers in the “paper making” stage as I desire. Ink and paint refine the image with shading and details.

Many of my original quits are in private collections around the country and my piece, “Mountain Chapel”, is in the permanent collection of the National Quilt Museum in Paducah, Kentucky. I price my originals to reflect the time, materials and skill needed to create them, and on my record of sales. I know not everyone is going to be able to afford an original, nor does everyone want or have room for wall art, so I have images of my art printed on cards, magnets, coasters, trivets, canvas and metal. Those affordable reproductions sell in galleries and shops, which keeps money circulating in the business.

I have reached an age where I want fewer deadlines in my life so I don’t do commissions anymore. I do less speaking and teaching than before as well. I have young grandsons in my life now that I want to invest time and love in while they are young and not so busy yet. That is one major perk to having this business, the ability to make adjustments as you want or need and still have a job.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

There are two things that drive my creative journey. First is getting my art out into the public eye to find folks that connect with it and for whom it will be meaningful. Just making art for myself is not enough. I believe my personal calling is to share beauty, peace and joy with the world. Second is to generate income.

Have you ever had to pivot?

Life is an adventure! It seems that things are always changing. Each time we moved with the military, we got busy settling into a new house or apartment and making new friends, (finding our “people”), a new church, getting to know the area and helping our son adjust to a new school and friends, and I had to find a new job. As people, find ourselves in different stages of life as we get older and become empty nesters and our parents retire, or maybe pass, and our kids get married and maybe have grandkids. Just when we get comfortable, things change again and again. Technology improves and we need to learn new skills.

It’s the same with being an artist with an art business. There are the external forces in the market that make you re-evaluate what you’ve been doing and maybe head in a new direction. Like when paper prints quit selling well so I decided to try canvas and metal. Or when the economy tanked in 2008 and art wasn’t selling well so I got very selective about having reproductions made and in what quantities.

Then there are the internal forces, like I’d decide to try, or make up, a new technique to get an effect I wanted, which usually meant finding a source for what I wanted to use and refining how I used it. Or deciding to try a new product line and all that goes with that. It really is doing research and development, which also effects the financial side of the business in the use of time and money. Or, getting bored with a particular subject matter, so changing it up. Or feeling overwhelmed with too many commitments and deciding where to cut back. After traveling to teach and lecture for 10 years I decided to cut way back on that so I could spend more time making my own art. As a one-person business, I am dividing my time between creating art and taking care of the business side too.

When Covid hit in early 2020 and shortly afterwards our son was seriously injured in a car accident, and then we decided to move to Texas in early 2021, my ability to make art totally tanked for about 20 months. That was a time when the reproduction side of my business really was a blessing. The inventory that remained in shops continued to sell as the effects of Covid eased.

As we settled in our new home in Texas, I decided to focus on getting my original art pieces out into the local communities instead of focusing on National shows. We border the Texas Hill Country, which is a tourist destination, along with the city of Austin itself, which brought in $91.7 billion in 2022 in travel and tourism dollars. My landscape art appeals to tourists in Colorado and sells very well there, so I knew that is what I wanted to tap into in Texas. That meant I needed to get busy creating a body of work reflecting the beauty of the Hill Country. I still have shops selling my reproduction product in Colorado and I am building a reproduction business now in Texas and am looking for shops and galleries that would find my product line a compliment to and a benefit for their business.

I currently have products and/or original works at the San Marcos Art Center at 117 N. Guadalupe St in San Marcos, at 2 Moons Art Loft at 400 US-290, Suite A103, in Dripping Springs, and the Old Bakery and Emporium at 1006 Congress Ave in Austin, across from the courthouse. I enter shows routinely at the Wimberley Valley Art League, located in the Community Center in Wimberley, at Art on 12 at 13811 Ranch Rd 12 in Wimberley and The Price Center at 222 W San Antonio St in San Marcos.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://annettekennedy.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/annette_kennedy_art/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AnnetteKennedyART