ABOUT
I
Christina S. MacKinnon is an artist based in Flemington, New Jersey. Working out of her home studio, she has been painting prolifically since 2013. With the use of various mediums, Christina probes the dynamics of color, mark-making and fluctuation of process as a derivative of how she navigates her footing in our ever changing universe. With each series of paintings, she creates visual abstract stories of the human experience through diverse lenses and perspective, frayed with the complexities of misperceptions, stigmas and patriarchal narratives.
Thoughts Behind the Margin Series
A teenage girl nervously sits at her desk. She feels small and stupid. Her mind, flooded with a cacophony of self loathing chatter as she struggles to learn and understand what the teacher is teaching. Her anxiety is through the roof. She picks up her pencil and fills the margins of her paper.
A revelatory studio session jolted me back to memories of my days as this anxiety-riddled high schooler when I noticed a transition in my work that encompassed the use of repetitive mark-making. Learning had become increasingly arduous for me and my inability to focus and comprehend the material had me retreating to the margins of my paper, packing them with rhythmic lines, shapes and patterns. In retrospect, I believe it was my coping mechanism to help alleviate the state of my severe stress and anxiety.
This recollection led to further exploration of new work involving these comforting methods that I relied on as a teenager. This paradigm shift in my work has seemingly altered how I approach painting. How I employ line work is a direct correlation to youthful days of self-deprecation and self-preservation. Working with a variety of mediums, I’m revisiting an entity that consequently contributed to my lifelong feeling of intellectual inferiority and offering it renewed meaning woven into the details of these multilayered works.
"Painting is my voice, my language. It is the truest version of myself that I can only describe in words as a sacred communion of emotional, spiritual and physical presence, serving as a bridge that connects me at a greater level of consciousness with myself and the world around me."
