New exhibit highlights the work of Ellen Mears Kennedy

A student of weaving, fabric design and printmaking, Ellen Mears Kennedy brings her work home with an exhibit in Drury University’s Cox Gallery. A Silver Springs, Maryland, resident, Mears Kennedy is native of Springfield and daughter of former Drury professors Richard and Harriet Mears.

In her work of weaving and printmaking, Mears Kennedy found a link between the two, and a new passion — paper making. "There is a natural bridge between the two," she says, speaking about her weaving and printmaking training. "It’s paper. I would simply make paper all the time if I could."

The Cox exhibit displays works that include some of her original techniques in two-sided pigment-colored papers and collages which incorporate her original papers, weaving and printmaking. Abusing her sewing machine to create the art, Mears Kennedy indicates that she doesn’t sew like a seamstress would. "I don’t want to hold the fabric and paper in my hands and manipulate it. Since I sew on papers and fabrics, I prefer to work with them flat, so I push them though the sewing machine."

The combinations of fabric and paper provide a journal of sorts for Mears Kennedy, tracing the development of her work and incorporating her love of mythology. Some of the pieces combine pieces of her early weaving, papers she has created, printmaking samples and even fabrics with special memories. "Within all artists," she says, "there is a reverence for fabric, either for its beauty or for the memory it evokes."

Mears Kennedy’s show will run from April 4 to April 29 with an opening reception for the exhibit on Friday, April 4 at 7 p.m. Cox Gallery is located in Lydy Art Center on the Drury University campus. Except for the opening reception, the gallery is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday.

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