Growing up in an artistic family, Kennedy was greatly influenced by family members in the fashion and film industries. At a young age, she developed a love for the human figure and saw the body as a hanger – a showpiece – for clothing. Hence, she began her career as a fashion designer on 7th Ave. in New York City.

After years of designing, her fascination with texture, drape, form and movement left her wanting to deepen her understanding and appreciation of the physical body beneath the clothing she was creating, and she turned her attention to sculpture. She realized that she no longer wanted to dress the body but to sculpt it—to understand the gravity and physical beauty of the human form in its natural state. With each piece she wants to expose the raw and palpable nature of the body and its form, be it human or animal, in the hope that her work will connect with the viewer at a visceral level. She found her real voice as an artist in the transition from cloth to clay.

As a graduate of the Florence Academy of Art’s Sculpture Program 2012 (Florence, Italy), she is a classically trained realist sculptor with a focus on portrait and figurative work sculpted primarily from life. She works in water and oil-based clays and casts in bronze, aluminum and resin. Kennedy’s work has attracted commissions, both public and private, and has received recognition and honours from national and international organizations. Her work has been exhibited in the United States and abroad and is held in private collections across Europe, Great Britain, the United States, Canada, Mexico, and South Africa.

Her work and process are intuitive and organic and seek to give life to clay and composition. She views her work as an invitation to the onlooker to be enjoyed and experienced through both sight and touch. Each graze or stroke of a hand brings subtle changes to a finished piece of sculpture. At that moment, the piece belongs as much to the viewer as it does to the artist.