The ocean adds scenery, the bars and restaurants add nightlife and the history adds character, but the artwork is what makes Portsmouth cool. More accurately, artistic energy is what invigorates this city. Not all artists manage to get their work displayed in galleries, but there are hundreds of artists, musicians and writers waiting in the shadows, buzzing with creativity.

From an early age, Kenley Darling liked to draw. But, for a long time, her work lacked focus. She doodled. When she started attending the Sudbury Valley School in Framingham, her talent became more concentrated. Sudbury Valley is known for its flexible curriculum and emphasis on individuality and creative discovery. Instead of grades, Darling was given guidance.

Instead of discipline, she received support. Instead of strict adherence to a curriculum, Darling was encouraged to explore a range of artistic mediums, including drawing, beadwork, photography, sewing and painting. Instead of choosing one, Darling embraced them all.

Her artwork represents a cross pollination of mediums and materials. Her use of found objects adds a gritty, urban quality to each finished piece, but her work can also be feminine and sugary. The fact that Darling is a mother comes across in her art. One gets the sense, judging from her work and demeanor, that she can be both a loving mother and badass mama.     

Darling was living in Utah when she gave birth to her son, Jackson, in 2000. Art was forced to take a back seat for awhile, but she eventually became involved in the Underground Artist Association (UAA) in Salt Lake City. Her creative stylings meshed well with the other experimental artists and performers in the UAA. In 2003, Darling had her first show in an upscale bar and gallery called The Upstairs. Her work soon began creeping into the Salt Lake scene. 

In 2004, Darling moved back east to be closer to family. Although she grew up in Newburyport, Mass., she decided to settle in the Port City. “I had never even really been to Portsmouth before that, and I came here and just fell in love with the town,” she said. But, in the three years that Darling has lived in Portsmouth, she’s only had one show, which was at The Press Room on Daniel Street.  

“I think the Press Room is great, because they allow so many different artists doing so many different things to hang their artwork,” Darling said. “There is nothing uptight about it. It’s not an art gallery. It’s a place where a lot of people go and they show art. And they show local artists all the time. I love supporting local people and I love that The Press Room supports local art.”

Portsmouth has a number of art galleries dispersed throughout downtown. But Darling feels there is a serious dearth of places that show local, contemporary art. “We have a lot of the galleries and a lot of the places that show art, but what I think Portsmouth is lacking is younger, alternative art. You don’t see a lot of that here,” she said. “It’s so easy to sit down and make something, if that’s what you love. Art doesn’t have to be a painting that takes you forever. Art could be something you make from found objects you make in an hour. I love found object art. I like art that doesn’t have to be fine-tuned. You don’t have to strive for this perfect picture, because there are imperfections in everything. And I like art that says that.”
“I think there is the potential for a great arts scene here. I don’t think it exists all the time, but I think it is right there, where, if people really started doing things, it could happen,” she added.

A handful of local establishments are cultivating such a scene, knowingly or unknowingly. The Press Room, The Odd Showroom, Dos Amigos Burritos and Identity Footwear and Apparel regularly hang work from local artists, according to Darling, who currently has two pieces on display at Identity.

Love is a prominent theme in Darling’s work, and hearts are a common feature. One day, while contemplating a broken skateboard, she noticed that by turning the two pieces at a certain angle, they resembled a heart. “I was thinking, that’s kind of poetic, in the same way that someone who loves to skateboard, when they break their board, it’s heartbreaking,” she said. Thus, the concept for “The Broken Heart Series” was born.

Darling told Matt Jagemann from Identity about her idea for the skateboard hearts, and he invited her to hang one in the shop. Sometime later, while Darling was working at the Flatbread Co., a woman came in to inquire who had made the hearts hanging in the skate shop. She was organizing a benefit and silent art auction in Los Angeles, called “Skate With Gusto.” The Sept. 15 event will raise money to help less fortunate male and female athletes attend international skateboard competitions. The woman wanted Darling to donate some of her skateboard art.   

“I’m excited about it just because it’s a new space, but, at the same time, I would love to have something hanging in Portsmouth. I’m almost more excited about something happening in Portsmouth,” she said.

Darling has also been working on an alphabet coloring book for adults. When completed, hopefully by December, the book will include 26 drawings, each with a poetic line that corresponds with the letters of the alphabet. “It all involves love, and I think that when people read it, they’re touched by it, because everyone knows what it’s like to be in love and to also feel the heartbreak that love can cause,” she said. The first entry reads, “A is for this alphabet and all the things that could have been.”

But what about all the things that still can be? How many more artists are out there, waiting in the shadows? “Anything that anyone does, even if it’s not my favorite—it’s not my favorite picture, it’s not my favorite whatever—you got up and did something. You went with it. I’m completely supportive of that,” Darling said. “I think if everyone did that, we could have a really great art community here."