Art Review: Designer Kenneth Maldonado by Diana Saintilme

 

The artist I will be doing a review for is Kenneth Maldonado.

The work that I will be reviewing is titled ‘Spiritual Health’. The work was created on October 24, 2024 and it was created in Adobe Illustrator. The dimensions are 8.5 by 11 inches. Something peculiar is that the man in the artwork is actually an outline of Spiderman and the body is actually molding into the ground. I would not have guessed that initially unless the artist told me.

The meaning of the work is the struggle with spiritual health. Kenneth explained that while there is so much emphasis on mental health, there is a lack of emphasis on spiritual health. As he stated, many people may struggle mentally but also spiritually and it can be due to a spiritual lack of connection. I also feel that this is true because after hearing the meaning, I realized that we rarely hear about someone struggling spiritually. With the growing interest in mental health, you’d think there would be some mention of spiritual health especially considering religion is a big part in our society but there isn’t.

This work made me think about the possible spiritual struggles that someone may have. Like Kenneth said, there is a lot more emphasis on mental health and not enough on spiritual health. While someone may be struggling mentally, they could also be struggling spiritually. Those who are very religious or grew up in a religious home could struggle with their spiritual health at points in their lives. At one point, I asked what was the meaning of the different colors used in the work. He stated that the blue text was God speaking, the black text was the person’s thoughts, and the red text was the Devil speaking. I felt that this is a representation of what someone’s struggling spiritually might go through.

Kenneth’s piece is definitely what I would consider art. It also speaks about an important issue that not many people may think about. When thinking about mental health, we should also think about other forms of health such as spiritual health. This art piece brings attention to a form of health that is not widely talked about. I believe artworks like Kenneth’s can help bring attention to these underrepresented forms of health.