Kenneth's Works

Kenneth is a student in the 2025 Odyssey Project class.

Kenneth's Reflection

One question I chose to reflect on with my archive project is how do we make it home? I discussed with one of my classmates a sense of feeling gray, wondering if there was any meaning beyond the cycle of working for survival. I believe home then is a feeling of purpose and fulfillment.

When conceiving this project I imagined one image, one answer of how to get home, one perfect finished product. And this project of course would be accomplished in isolation from others, cooped up in a studio so no one sees the imperfect journey.

But what I’ve learned from Odyssey is that for me, personally, there’s joy in being a messy work in progress while in community, and not distant and searching for perfection apart from others.

I’ve learned in US History that it’s okay to be loud and passionate with one’s knowledge and beliefs. I’ve learned in literature that I love writing poetry without worrying about how it will be received. I’ve learned in Art History to spend as much time looking at something as you need, and that what is meaningful to us can also be meaningful to others. In philosophy there are many ways of seeing the world and that learning new ways can be enjoyable. In critical thinking and writing that challenge is necessary but also exciting.

I want the answer for how we get home to be grounded in what’s real to us, but then pushed further than what might make sense to anyone else, or even ourselves in the beginning. Maybe meaning will be found after a thing is done. I say this because in my own journey home I’ve found more fulfillment after letting go of trying to please others and just being as true to my joy as possible.

The experience of making these paintings over the period of this project has been a chance to meditate on music and self. My love of basketball, fashion, and epic stories has guided this process of making these images and exploring themes from our readings. Some ideas and images that have stuck with me: Marvin Gaye’s infectious desire, James Baldwin’s letter to his nephew but also to all of us, or Audre Lorde’s imploring us to not to look away from the yes within ourselves.

My process for this project was letting myself get carried away with whatever my interest was at a particular moment, be that Japanese fashion, early 2000’s hip-hop, epic stories repeating through time or all of the above. I chose this process for answering my question because there are many ways home and many adventures along those paths. And in doing this I discovered peace in talking about my interests with others and embodying them, not simply drawing alone. So what I want to leave behind with this project is enjoying the messy process of living and being fully oneself.

Kenneth's Artwork