Kenna Boles Prior

y creativity has made me a survivor of life or maybe the abuses of childhood forced a creativity in order to survive. Either way, they are connected, this conflict of beauty and reality exist together. This conflict is never sought, but is there consistently. It has been my journey sorting through the details trying to make sense of it all and finally releasing it through my art. This journey is reflected in various ways throughout my work, a mirror of my history, my conflicts.

Throughout this process I have been forced to question not only good and evil, but each persons interpretation and justifications. While we can argue the definition of good and evil, there are those who are unable to identify the harm or defend themselves from the perpetrators. When caretakers, or persons in position of trust, fail for the sake of their own comfort, who is left to defend and address these issues? Sometimes my work addresses these issues and other times it is simply the outward appearances we are best comfortable, with nothing more than traces often overlooked.

While I may no longer have to deal with these issues, I am still looking for treasures in unusual places, which leads me to have these huge and sometimes questionable collections, both personal and found. A beauty exists in each aged, broken, and abandoned object. I draw inspiration from these objects either in the objects themselves or the stories that lie within in them. Finding these items is like finding beautiful memories, while they may not be mine, they are proof of possibilities. Some may serve as inspiration, other objects I may use to consumed within the art. This leaves me to continuously experiment and explore various mediums, interactions between them, and how they may mirror life or my interpretation of it.

Details of many of my pieces are both symbolic and literal, no matter how we choose to interpret them, of those trespasses. Survival, by it’s very nature, forces us to seek answers and beauty naturally. My eye is drawn to it. Even in the worst horizon I find a piece of hope calling to me.