Cover Artist: Kendra Runnels

By Gina Malone

One of the most magical things about creativity is discovery. Artists often stumble, years later, upon truths about themselves they never realized at the time that they were creating. Such was the case with mixed media artist Kendra Runnels who looked back at paintings she made while in her twenties that portrayed people walking down the street in the rain with umbrellas. “The paintings were really dark with small pops of color,” Runnels says. “All the while I was trying to develop my style and what made my art uniquely mine. The darkness in my paintings early on depicted the hard things I was going through and the small pops of color were the hope I still looked forward to and saw in life. Only looking back on it now do I see this. At the time I was depressed and was just ‘making art.’ But I see now it was much more than that.”

Runnels had graduated with a BFA from Savannah College of Art & Design and found work as a graphic designer—first in her native Ohio, then in Charlotte—but was unhappy and unfulfilled in both jobs. “While in Charlotte, a friend gave me a pack of three canvases and some paints and said, ‘I thought you might just want to be creative,’” Runnels recalls. “So I made three different paintings of these colorful lizards that hung out outside of my house—very random subject matter.

Afterward, I thought, ‘I wonder if I could actually sell these?’ I went to the Green Rice Gallery in the NoDa area of Charlotte and they sold two of the three paintings. I was around 24 years old at the time. I was just in shock that people could actually make money off of art! And that’s really where it all began.”

She balanced her job as a graphic designer with creation of her own art, participating in her first art fair in Charlotte soon after her first paintings sold. At 26, she went on an 11-month long Christian mission trip that visited 11 countries, with service that included helping out at an orphanage in Romania, teaching English in Cambodia and helping women in Thailand who had been trafficked. Throughout the journey, Runnels found herself creating and painting, and keeping a log of photos for inspiration when she returned home. “To say I was inspired by God, my faith and my experience was an understatement,” she says. “I was one hundred percent convinced when I returned that I should take the leap and just become a full-time artist.” The trip ended in mid-2010 and by 2011 she was creating full-time, embarking on a circuit of art fairs that summer.

Traveling with her artwork wasn’t easy at first. She remembers a show in 2006 when her unweighted tent blew into a neighboring artist’s tent. “It broke some of her art, so I paid her the few dollars I had for it,” says Runnels. “After that, I went and cried in the porta-potty. Despite this and other not-so-great events, I kept doing art fairs and growing my art business. There were many years traveling, before I got married, when I would sleep in Wal-Mart parking lots to save money on travel expenses while going to art fairs. Now, I’m happy to say, I can easily afford a comfortable hotel room while I’m traveling for my art and I’m exceptionally thankful for that.”

Having grown up with church attendance a part of family life, she finds inspiration in Bible verses, especially ones that refer to nature. After the mission trip, she also found herself drawn to trains as subjects since much of the travel was by train. “You’ll notice a lot of these train scenes, and even my umbrella scenes, have a bit of a dreamy faded look to them,” Runnels says. “They are meant to have a dream-like nostalgia to them because that’s how I felt half the time I was traveling through these old countries on ancient-looking trains.”

Her work is represented regionally at Art MoB Studios & Marketplace where owner Michele Sparks enjoys the conversations that the paintings invite. “They have so many different meanings to each person,” Sparks says. “Like the train series—people question, ‘Is she leaving for something better, or did she just arrive?’”

Runnels now lives in Augusta, GA, with her husband and two young daughters and still travels the art fair circuit. The pandemic canceled and postponed many events, but Runnels used the time to get her online shop up and running. “Now, I’m grateful for all I’ve been forced to learn and thankful for all the people who have found my work through my website and other means since the pandemic began,” she says.

Her pieces combine collage, pattern, texture and layers of acrylic paint. Her most recent series, incorporating florals and birds, is titled A Garden’s Lullaby. “My style has evolved to a place where I’m really starting to feel like a ‘professional,’ she says. “In these pieces, as in other work, she incorporates words from sheet music and old books. “I felt using words and phrases in my work could help me tell the meaning behind each work of art,” she says. “It could also help me tell my story, help others see their own stories in my work and it could be a daily whisper of encouragement and hope to anyone who sees my pieces.”

Find Kendra Runnels’ work at Art MoB Studios & Marketplace, in Hendersonville. Art MoB will host a reception for the artist on Saturday, November 19, from 4–6 p.m. Learn more at ArtMoBStudios.com and at KendraStudios.com, and follow on Instagram @kendrastudios.