“I Did It My Way” by Kennedi Benjamin, 2025, mixed media, 24×36.
ABOUT THE SERIES
“This series ‘I Am My Mother’s Daughter’ is an intimate exploration of identity, grief and celebration of life. Each painting in this series captures a facet of what it means to deeply remember my mom and to wrestle with, and ultimately embrace, who she was and how much I am like her.
“The series is not a linear narrative, but an emotional landscape, sometimes tender and often satirical. There is conflict and celebration interwoven between paint and textiles. Found objects that found me during the process, many pieces from my mother’s own collection as though she left them for me to bring ‘her’ to life in each painting.
“I worked with a palette that is warm and bright like a perfect day. Yellow and red were her favorite colors, and pink is mine. Her eyes were magical blue. When you are drawn to these colors, I hope you feel deeply. Feel them like the softest fabric you have ever touched.
“Fabric is an integral part of my work as it was something I grew up around. My mother and my grandmother were sewing people. They refused to teach me. They said I could buy what I want to wear. It’s interesting to me that this was almost reverse psychology perfectly practiced. I learned to actually sew in my 30s and I now sew regularly. It is a skill that I highly value, but certainly would not have if they tried to teach me. My fondest memories of both my mother and grandmother are of the things they sewed for me. That is why I have incorporated their actual fabrics and notions into my paintings.
“This series is a visual conversation with the past. It’s a diary for the talks that didn’t happen because the words were too hard. It’s a mirror, it’s a love letter, it’s an embrace, it’s a lifetime of moments woven together.
“In painting this series, I am not just telling my story, I am honoring my momma’s story and, hopefully, creating a moment for each of us to think about our own life stories.”
ARTIST STATEMENT
“I have always had a fascination with textiles and found objects. When I paired this with my love for a bright color palette and my sense of humor, a spark ignited. I chose the ‘brush name’ of Kennedi Benjamin as a way of honoring my family for helping me to graduate from art school while caring for my terminally ill 8-year-old daughter Shae.”
Kennedi Benjamin has a BA in general studio from Southern Illinois University. She has had solo art shows, group exhibits and gallery representation in Arkansas, Tennessee, Florida, Oklahoma, Texas and New York City. Her work is in collections across the U.S. and Mexico.
Her studio is based in Houston, Texas, where she lives with her husband David and their two dogs Olive and ZuZu. They have three daughters — Lily in Los Angeles, Maribella in Dallas, Grace in Austin — “and we have a precious angel Shae, in heaven with my momma.”
See more of Benjamin’s work in the exhibit “I Am My Mother’s Daughter” on display at Cantrell Gallery, online at kennedibenjamin.com and on Instagram.