Mother Nature’s elements — the essence of creation
By: Connie Beckers 05/01/2007
“Engage the heart, and the mind will follow.” John Caddy. These are words to live by for painter and teacher Monica Kenton of the Cleveland neighborhood. Kenton moved with her son and partner to the spectacular Tudor nine years ago from 51st and Vincent after falling in love with the quiet, diverse and well-kept neighborhood.
Kenton, age 41, has been teaching Spanish at the U of M for 16 years but has been making art her entire life. With a gifted artist for a mom, how could she help but pick up a paintbrush? Actually, mom coached her through her first oil painting at age seven. The artist in her has emerged through various forms over the years; Kenton played clarinet, piano and organ as a child mixed with a lot of arts and crafts. She later went into faux painting, jewelry making and writing poetry through a class with the poet John Caddy from Forest Lake. And to burn off pent up energy, she dances. And she plays the guitar. Whew!
When she’s not teaching, leading her son’s Boy Scout troop or taking an art class, she makes art. Using paint, paper and good ol’ Mother Nature. Using watercolor or acrylic paints, Monica works outside using leaves, sticks, sand, water…whatever Mother Nature has available … and pushes the limits and natural reactions of the elements. For instance, she paints with watercolor in freezing cold weather and drizzles water on the paper so when it freezes, it leaves a frost pattern in the paint. “I believe that the water and all elements I use have their own spirit and how I create my work is by being intentional with the spirit of the natural element in a sacred aspect. I invite the elements to be a part of the creative process.” We can’t reveal all her secrets here so you’ll have to visit her booth at the Spring Art Party to see more! Saturday, June 9, North Commons Park from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
The direction of Kenton’s art changed a little four years ago when she studied with Sheila Asato at the Edina Art Center. Through art classes, dream work and mentoring, she began to see a correlation between the images in her artwork and her dreams. She looked back at a string of dreams with a lot of birds and realized her artwork from that same time also had bird imagery. Without knowing it, her dreams were coming out in her artwork.
These days, she’s passionate about making books and journals with paper she made from outdoors. “I love the idea of a person creating their own book or using a special book to write their thoughts or to draw or anything because so many times people won’t use them because they’re too beautiful. Contact Monica at 612-588-1869 or mkenton@umn.edu.
Stories of Camden artists have been running in the Camden News for four years now. We hope you’ve enjoyed discovering just how many artists there are living and working in our neighborhoods, how diverse a bunch we are and how much we have to contribute. There are art happenings all over our community these days and there will be a calendar listing soon at www.nacarts.org. Support art on the Northside.