Baird says she's closing her studio in north Davidson and answering God's call.
Posted: Sunday, May. 10, 2009

Meet Kendra Baird

At age 26, Kendra Baird is making a living selling her paintings, something many artists can't claim.

This fall, however, Baird is giving it all up. She's closing her studio in north Davidson and leaving her life in Charlotte for an 11-month mission trip around the world.

Baird said everyone, including her accountant, is asking her why.

“I was willing to give that up even before I made it as an artist,” Baird said. “If God says go, I'm know I'm finally at a point where I now he has a better plan, and I have full comfort in that.

“I know if I come back to (art), I can be successful again.”

Baird grew up in Ohio and was inspired to pursue art by a high school teacher. She went to Savannah College of Art and Design and majored in graphic design – a field she thought would be fun and profitable.

She ended up in Charlotte working as a graphic designer. One day, she and a friend were taking picture of geckos. Baird, who had never painted before, decided to try painting a picture of one.

“It turned out really well, and I thought, ‘Why don't I try to sell these?'” Baird said. She talked to Green Rice Gallery in NoDa, which took three of her paintings. Two of them sold.

Baird began painting. She painted fish, turtles and butterflies, and the artwork sold.

“They're cute, but they don't mean much,” Baird said of her animal series.

About that time, Baird had ended a difficult relationship and was yearning to make her art more conceptual. Her new paintings soon were reflecting her life.

Baird's first art show was called “Beneath the Surface.” One painting from that series depicts a little girl who has let go of a bunch of balloons, called “Disappointment.” Another one, called “After the Rain,” shows a girl under a rainbow.

“It's the idea that it's going to be OK, that the rain will stop and there will be something after that,” Baird said.

While Baird has been a Christian believer since she was 20, she said it took her a few years to be “sold out to God completely.”

“When I started painting (‘Beneath the Surface'), I made my decision that I was getting out of a difficult relationship and following what God had for my life,” Baird said. “I guess from then on, the best paintings I've done are almost divine intervention.”

She points to a detailed painting of a cathedral, which she says unfolded as she painted.

In November, Baird applied for the World Race after reading about it in a Christian magazine. The World Race is an intense, 11-month mission trip where young adults visit 11 countries and “abandon a traditional lifestyle in exchange for a dramatic paradigm shift,” according the World Race Web site.

“I always thought I would never be good enough for something like that,” Baird said. “But I kept thinking about it, and I thought it was something God might want me to do.”

Meanwhile, people were buying her paintings, and she began doing a brisk business selling reproductions of her work.

If she was accepted for the World Race, she decided, that was God's answer for her next step in life.

“At first, I was afraid that I would actually get in, and I thought, ‘What have I gotten myself into?'” Baird said. “I prayed, for the first time, God, your will be done, not mine. My whole life, I've been working for my dreams and my success, and I've always been told that God has a much better plan for me.

“I finally wanted to give all control to God by giving up everything, my whole life here.”

As she was waiting for an answer from the World Race, she began her next series of paintings, “An Unclear Sky,” which showed at Green Rice Gallery in March. The paintings all depict part of a scene through an uneven, textured frame.

“You can see a portion of what's happening,” Baird said. “By seeing that, you know there's a comfort to move forward, but you'll never see it all. The part that you can see really intrigues you and brings you in.”

Baird will leave for the World Race in August, carrying only a backpack. She's packing a small sketch pad and watercolor palette, but she's prepared to leave the rest of her art behind – forever, if God asks her to.

She has no idea what she'll do, or what her life will be like, when she returns from the trip.

“I know without a doubt that the next year of my life is going to be the least regretful ever because I'm doing what God wants me to do,” she said.

"Going Somewhere" by Kendra Baird Courtesy of Kendra Baird