Dorothy Kennedy (b.1936) was a semi-professional Southern Utah artist active from the 1980s until her death in March 2020. After retiring from her career as a schoolteacher, Kennedy and her husband Leon moved from their hometown of Springville to St. George, where she became a student of Southern Utah artist Gayla Prince-Wallace. What initially started as a hobby turned into an encore career as Kennedy refined her skills, eventually selling and showing art across Utah, Nevada, and Arizona. Her variety of subject matter is drawn from her many diverse life experiences and includes Southwest and Cowboy art, inspired by her home in St. George; pioneer heritage scenes, inspired by her work with the Daughters of Utah Pioneers Society; and Mediterranean landscapes and towns, modeled after her travels and time attending Salamanca University. However, the hallmark works of her career were her family history or heritage paintings, which depict stories of her ancestors that she discovered through her extensive family history work. After producing these works, Kennedy marketed herself as the Story Painter, offering to paint others’ stories and life experiences. Towards the end of her life, Kennedy’s works were entirely focused on capturing the lives of her immediate family members, recording the places and lives of her parents, siblings, husband, and children.

The works featured in this exhibit represent Dorothy Kennedy’s three main artistic phases: Western Cowboy art, Mediterranean Landscapes, and Heritage paintings. On loan from various family members, these works represent only a tiny fraction of the paintings Kennedy painted and sold throughout her artistic career. Her Heritage paintings are each accompanied by their unique stories and stand as a testament to the importance of family in Kennedy’s life and to all our ancestors who came before us, who paved our own unique paths. This selection of Kennedy’s works also exemplifies her tenacity, ambition, and resilience both as a regional artist, not associated with any professional institution or collective, and as an individual.