Statements

This documentary short film titled "Traudis Kennedy: Abstract Painter," was produced in 1998 by Eileen Binns. Through interviews and archival footage, Traudis discusses her influences as an artist, how she began painting, and her process. This film is one of the few instances on video of Traudis speaking deliberately about her work.

"Originally my concern was to create, on small surfaces, a structural reordering of my surroundings, utilizing elements of landscapes that interested me. Now, my desire is to impose strong, external impressions on internal environments, by emphasizing color, and form in a large scale. When possible, I prefer to work with particular architectural spaces in mind.

My painting is a reaction to the drabness that dominates contemporary life, an attempt to alleviate monotony through color and form."

-- Traudis Kennedy, 1985

"Her unique idiom remains unchanged -- sensuous, celebrant, and charged with an expansive energy, its recurrent theme is the painter's own contagious joy in the act of creation."

-- David Galloway, Professor of American Studies at Ruhr University and Editor for Germany of Art in America.

"I am interested in the space in which the painting hangs, and the transition between the
painting and its environment; thus the edges and borders of the painting, the size of the walls
on which it will hang and the shape of the rooms which will surround it are a major concern to me."

-- Traudis Kennedy, 2009

"In the aluminum pigment paintings, the silvery surfaces respond to changing environmental light, creating a space for both contemplation and action in the room."

-- Claudia Vess

"'All art continuously aspires to the condition of music,' asserted the great aesthetician of the 19th century, Walter Pater... One could create a hierarchy of musical analogies, from the distilled etudes of the smaller canvases to the symphonic sweep of her larger compositions, to classify this oeuvre. Yet there is, finally, no inconsistency between the linguistic and the musical classifications if we regard both as systematic attempts to express abstract thoughts and emotions."

-- David Galloway, 1985

Statements

My painting is a reaction to the drabness that dominates contemporary life, an attempt to alleviate monotony through color and form."

"Her unique idiom remains unchanged -- sensuous, celebrant, and charged with an expansive energy, its recurrent theme is the painter's own contagious joy in the act of creation."

"I am interested in the space in which the painting hangs, and the transition between the painting and its environment; thus the edges and borders of the painting, the size of the walls on which it will hang and the shape of the rooms which will surround it are a major concern to me."

"In the aluminum pigment paintings, the silvery surfaces respond to changing environmental light, creating a space for both contemplation and action in the room."

"I am interested in the space in which the painting hangs, and the transition between the
painting and its environment; thus the edges and borders of the painting, the size of the walls
on which it will hang and the shape of the rooms which will surround it are a major concern to me."