Kendall Bolden, an African American interdisciplinary artist born in Minnesota who relocated with her family to Miami, FL in her early adolescence, went on to receive her Bacholer of Fine Arts in sculpture at the Kansas City Art Institute. Her focus explores the unsettling nature of dreams and abandoned homes. The artwork explores the pain she suffers as a result of her parasomnia, also known as a night terrors; telling stories of her dreams through miniature environments and quilt making. She brings the feeling of abandonment from her dreams into the world allowing her to reimagine the atmosphere and emotions tied to them. 

“The work is my reaction to these nightmares and a way to work through my sleepless nights. I want to give the viewer the feel as if the walls are talking and you are forced to listen.” 

In the fall of 2023, Kendall started to explore the use of Cyanotype. This allowed her to design the wallpaper and fabric for her artwork, permiting Kendall to relay common themes showing up in her dreams. These common themes are family, domestic spaces, and loneliness; which in turn acknowlwdges her need to explore. What does family mean to contrasting individuals? How is this idea weaved into Kendall’s artwork and how has it pushed her to create dreamlike pieces? Whether it is a window that looks into a home or a quilt lying inside the home; the domestic space in her dreams explore why family is demandingly prevalent in Kendall’s nightmares. She attempts to focus on  the idea of “family” or “home,” empowering you as the viewer to perceive a family without ever seeing them.