When he was 17 he started playing the guitar he got as a present during his years studying to be a Jesuit Novice in Panamá.
His only solo studio album, Tuyo Lo Que Soy, is in the Latin folk tradition, and the songs, which have been praised for their "inspired lyricism" contain social and political themes.
He would mainly paint portraits of bodies, angels, butterflies and Jesus Christ, in vivid and distinct colours.
[6] In May 2010, during Europe Day, the Nicaraguan representative for the European Union of Central America and Panama, Mendel Golstein, gave a tribute to Cardenal and featured a collaboration of the works by French artist Jean Marc Calvet and Cardenal.
[7] In December 2011, a museum about Cardenal was nearly completed and was officially opened on March 8, 2012, the second anniversary of his death.