The word "basic" gets treated unfairly. Colloquially, it has come to mean boring or mainstream, when once it signified something universal and fundamental. "Human Family," Melora Kennedy's retrospective solo show at the Front in Montpelier, guides the viewer back to that version of "basic" in a way that's extraordinary. Kennedy presents paintings, assemblages and a few drawings from the past decade or so of her practice. Her canvases are populated with still lifes, landscapes and figures. While none of their subjects is unusual in itself, an innovative concept ties them together: The artist has paired each work's title with a phrase taken from the United Nations' 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Kennedy said that concept evolved from her desire to be more politically active through her work, after realizing the November 5 election coincided with her show. She has been painting while listening to composer Max Richter's 2020 album Voices, which combines melancholy and stirring instrumentals with an international array of voices reading parts of the declaration in multiple languages. The first is Eleanor Roosevelt's. That was one of the seeds from which "Human Family" grew. Kennedy was also considering how titles can be integral to yet seemingly unrelated to a work, as Frank O'Hara describes in his poem "Why I Am Not A Painter": "One day I am thinking of / a color: orange. I write a line / ... My poem / is finished and I haven't mentioned / orange yet. It's twelve poems, I call / it ORANGES." The different ideas clicked: "It was a freeing moment to realize you could just do whatever you want," Kennedy said. "That made me figure it out: how I could be a political artist." Kennedy's politics, like her paintings, are personal. A standout pair of works from 2023, "Water Street: 'Freedom of Movement and Residence'" and "Backyard Landscape: 'Human Family,'" are views of Springfield, Ore., where the Montpelier artist recently visited her relatives. Their green vegetation radiates the region's golden light, which Kennedy said gave her a new appreciation for the place where she grew up. These works are loose and confident, reflecting a different kind of freedom of movement. Kennedy included a few playful, almost fauvist landscapes on paper that reflect her sense of humor. Here, trees and plants become characters — a transformation reinforced by their enumerated rights. A winter scene with groups of…