Hi, I’m Kendra
As a religious trauma therapist turned visual memoirist, I have a deep interest in exploring the patterns that shape us as humans. Just as a beloved pyrex pattern gets embedded in our memories, so do patterns of belief, behavior, trauma, spirituality, family and societal systems get imprinted onto our cells and end up driving unconscious patterns in our own lives.
For the past several years I have worked through the impacts of high control systems both professionally and personally.
I think primarily in symbols, pictures, and metaphors and needed a way to externalize and interact with my story in these languages. After my therapy sessions I began to write about and visually depict aspects of my story, transforming memory into something I could see, relate to, and reimagine.
Now, I create work that explores the relationship between inner and outer systems: exploring how our nervous systems, memories, and identities are shaped by the environments we come from, and how those patterns can be witnessed, questioned, and transformed.
Prominent themes found across all mediums of my work include generational trauma and healing, the interconnectedness of all life forms, memory, mortality, spirituality and the discovery of one’s truest self.
My work mirrors my belief that beauty and vitality are revealed through attention, not control. As a mixed media artist I use a combination of expressions including lyrical prose, poetry, digital art, paintings with ink and watercolor, collage, textiles, moving visuals and audio, to express the idea that while the patterns that we grew up with served a valuable purpose, we get to expand beyond them and create new patterns as we develop.
Visual Memoir Illustrations: The process
Symbols: antique vessel (representing Erika’s love of thrifting and its role of helping her feel connected to her grandmothers), her childhood bedroom wallpaper, and daisies (a flower symbolizing Erika herself)
Memory: photo of Erika as a child and a photo she felt represented her most authentic self now
These specific symbols and memory artifacts come together to represent Erika as a child being held by the memory and legacies of her grandmothers bringing her to who she is today - a woman who is still discovering who she is in light of her past, present, and future
Symbols: blocks handmade by grandmother and a yellow chair gifted by grandfather
Memory: Photos of my childhood nursery and myself as a baby
These specific symbols and memory artifacts come together to represent my formative years - the building blocks of my development in the very first environment that held me.
Symbols: wallpaper from childhood home and a ghost
Memory: from the ages of 3 to 8 many traumatic events occurred in this home with this wallpaper.
These specific symbols and memory artifacts come together to represent this childhood home as a container (or prison parts of me existed in) that has lingered for much of my life
Symbols: wallpaper from childhood bedroom and carousel horse
Memory: childhood photo riding the carousel
These specific symbols and memory artifacts come together to represent Erika’s rainbow wallpaper being a little nod to who she would become as an adult and the joy of being her full colorful self
Metaphor Exploration: emotional storms as emotional currents as you explore your internal world
Symbols: water balloons representing childhood joy, water and waves representing emotions, boat, lighthouse, backpack, and feet representing exploration
These specific symbols and memory artifacts come together to express a journey through waves and tides - a search to find childhood essence and a more authentic version of self