PHOTO OF PAINTING BY JOSHUA WEYBRIGHT
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ments and the people always looking over your shoulder?” But the things Kennedy once rebuked soon became some of the things
that made her newfound passion fun. She even reminisced, with a smile, about a time she was trying to capture cloud formations
about 15 minutes away from her home, and a windstorm coated her painting with dust, requiring hours spent picking it off. “I’ve
had to hold my painting with one hand and hope the easel didn’t blow over while I painted with the other hand,” she said. I’ve put
up with the temperatures in the winter. I’ve even brought hand warmers to put in my gloves. It’s hard to paint when your fingers
are starting to go numb. But then it’s summer and it’s hot and there’s bugs. But if I can have a good painting experience, then it’s all
worthwhile.”
Kennedy compared her new life to the American sitcom Green Acres, “We were kind of city folks moving into this rural experi-ence,
but we have our token pickup truck,” she laughed, but she has embraced the experience. All of the roads in her neighbor-hood
are unpaved. She has even brought home the dogs on the side of the road that started following her, something she says is
truly reflective of the lifestyle. But, much like painting outdoors, she has come to cherish the lifestyle. And with that rural experi-ence
comes the beautiful Santa Fe scenery where Kennedy finds her inspiration.
“I have paintings all around me. I mean, everywhere I look there is something I want to paint,” she said.
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