​ Kennedy Schroeder is a visual artist currently based in Chicago, IL. Throughout her experimentation of different media, Kennedy focuses on exploring themes of childhood, nostalgia, and memories. Recently, she has been investigating the intersection and amalgamation of people’s memories through tangled and pulsing marks. Through this compilation of perspectives, the artist invites the viewer to impose their own narrative on the work to encourage connection and deeper understanding through dialogue. Her personal narratives included in the work often describe her experience growing up around her grandparents in a wooded area in Illinois. Kennedy’s mediums of choice include oil painting, watercolor, and drawing. Her early works revolved around representative figures and objects, but over time they have become more expressive and painterly and have taken a more imaginative approach. Kennedy has also showcased skills in design; such as in her murals, logo designs, and other graphic works. Comics have also been a new venture that combine her passion for narrative with her design background. She graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in December of 2022. There she developed an interdisciplinary practice, and she continues to take opportunities of experimentation that encourage new ways of thinking for future works.

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:"A lot of my time is spent fondly looking back on the past, so themes of nostalgia naturally find their way into my work. I predominately create oil paintings, watercolor paintings, and drawings that reflect on memories and help me understand what makes me curious and excited about the everyday. This highlight on childlike behavior through visuals and appreciation in the everyday in turn generates creativity and curiosity for the viewer and myself. I am very moved by the idea that people are drawn to forming connections through shared past experiences, which I believe is why nostalgia and memory are such big themes to this day. These acts bring people together and open conversations, and I hold this intention towards my work in order to allow for more engagement in conversation through the abstraction, fantastical qualities, and personal connection. These dialogues of related memory often exchange buoyant energy much like an act of play, which is another explored aspect within my practice. A point of my past that often influences my work is the experience I had growing up at my grandpar- ent’s house in a wooded area. My time spent living there with them has a huge impact on how I view and interact with the world and art. I found that recently I am more engaged with abstract landscapes than works of realistic representations, so I decided to make work reflecting this interest. This led to me building these strange worlds of memories with instinctual, swirling marks that relate to my joyful experience recollecting a moment or place. The process for me feels like playing with the intuitive feeling of the brush gliding on the canvas making shapes. I trust the brush and canvas to give these forms character within their conversation with one another with my direction of narrative. I have continued to refine the flowing, abstract style that I used in my paintings of specific childhood memories, but the way in which the narrative is represented has broadened to be more about a painting developing and expanding from intersecting memories. Much like how our memories shift over time, these paintings become fields of movement."

​~ Kennedy Schroeder