 Kerns was a member of the California WC (watercolor) society and the Oregon Society of Artists.Her first exhibition of paintings was in 1925 at the Seattle Art Museum as part of their Northwest Annual Show.From the 1930s through the 1950s, Kerns made a name for herself in the world of abstract art, painting in what was called at the time the "non-objective" art movement, being widely known for modernist landscapes.