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Canvas Rebel - Meet Andrea McKenna

APRIL 29, 2024


We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Andrea McKenna. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Andrea below.

Andrea, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Are you happier as a creative? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job? Can you talk to us about how you think through these emotions?

In my younger years, I had a lot of jobs in retail and office work and hated all of it. Being an artist is part of who I am, I couldn’t ignore it. When I left my last office job for a career as a Faux Finisher, I was excited. It was my first creative job, even though the work was for someone else and for their home. A few years later, I started my own business doing this, and I stopped painting for myself and became devoted to working as a Faux Finisher as my main living.Some years later, I returned to painting, and I never looked back. My business was doing fine, but I needed more artistically. I realized that the only way I could be really happy was to continue being the artist that I am. Living the life you feel you are meant to live is so important, not only for true happiness but for health as well. I do sometimes think about what it would be like to have a regular job again. But the thought is always short-lived because, for the last 25 years, I have been living a creative life, and I couldn’t dare think of having it any other way.

  

Andrea, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

 

I am an American-born, interdisciplinary artist. I graduated from the School of Visual Arts in NYC when computers were just becoming a thing and social media was just an idea.  I was majoring in Illustration, a career I really didn’t want, and it became apparent that Fine Arts was what I should have majored in. After graduating, I yearned to create more freely from the bonds of art-directed illustration and ended up showing a piece of my own art in a tiny gallery in New Hope, PA. I was hooked and found the path I wanted to be on.  Little did I know at the time it would be a long and winding path with more obstacles than I ever imagined. Fast forward, skipping the endless jobs, romances, moving, marriage, my first business, surviving cancer twice, another business, moving again; I have now landed here: continuing my path as a visual artist and working as a gallery director/curator. I spoke about my business as a Faux Finisher, but that is now behind me. Since this past year, I have been concentrating on the visual arts and curation. As an artist, my evolution came into focus in 2013. The work I was creating took a turn, and I began to use alternative materials and realized a theme was developing. The idea of a spiritual transition with the figures in my work was becoming evident. I followed this into what is now a major theme of what I do. It started In 2013 when my mother suddenly passed away from a massive cerebral hemorrhage. I was in the middle of a painting, and when I returned to it, I noticed a change in the work. The figure started to take on a new personality. The texture I used formed shapes around the face, and it looked like the head was coming apart. I realized I was subconsciously painting what had happened to my mother.The figure portrayed a vulnerability but also possessed strength. My next several paintings showed similarities, and I was intrigued with this new direction. I started to paint on burlap because it reminded me of the Byzantine tapestries. I started using driftwood as a way to hang the pieces, feeling like anchors, reminding me of the deep ocean and all its mysteries. My work exuded a spiritual transition from the physical world to the spiritual. I am at a place now where I am finally designing and building a body of work I love. It’s been a slow but rewarding journey. And I’m finding that the more authentic I present myself, the more the work becomes understood and relatable by others.

Curating was something I was asked to do back in 2011 when it was noticed I had an eye for coordinating and hanging art. I then curated art festivals, pop-ups, and small art shows around town. I opened a gallery with my closest friend and had it for over three years before the rent skyrocketed. Soon after it closed, I was asked to curate for Art House Productions, a small non-profit I volunteered for occasionally. In a few months, I was hired to curate their gallery. Six years later, I am the director and curator for the space. Art House, as it is usually referred to, is a 23-year-old organization with a 99-seat, black box theater for plays, dance, community events, comedy, and much more. The gallery is 500 sq ft with a street view on one of the busiest roads in Jersey City, which leads straight to the Holland Tunnel and into NYC in minutes.

My job there is exhibiting and supporting local, emerging artists.I take pride in knowing the right art to exhibit for that space, and I love to encourage and help artists with what they do. Selling their work is extremely rewarding.

 

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

In 2008, when the housing market crashed, I lost six months of lined-up work in just a few days. I knew it would affect my business, and I took a hard hit. This is where I had to pivot. My husband was still working, and even though money became tight, I took this as a sign to go back into my creative life and start painting again, but this time, I had a different idea in mind. I started doing abstract work and created pieces on wood that incorporated the decorative products I used for my business. I also started to paint furniture, which was becoming very popular, and with all of this, I began doing art and craft fairs and started selling this work. After a time, painting furniture became the primary element of my business, and it’s what I became known for in the years to come.When things settled in the market and business picked up again, painted furniture was now trendy, and I had no problem fitting in. Sometimes, trying something new pays off, literally.

 

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

When I see the word resilience, I think of loss and how I’ve handled it. After my mother passed in 2013, I immediately met a gentleman at one of my jobs who was a master carpenter. We hit it off, became good friends, and began working with one another on each other’s jobs. I would do decorative painting on the cabinetry or tables he built for his clients, and he would create cabinetry and other fixtures for mine. In 2016, he passed away suddenly, and I was left with a lot of unfinished jobs. In 2018, I was diagnosed for a second time with breast cancer and underwent a double mastectomy. In 2020, I lost my very best friend to COVID-19, and a month later, my aunt, who I was caring for, passed away, and then my father less than a year later. Not to mention my dog and three cats in between. My creative life saved me from unending grief. I turned all of this death into a curiosity about the afterlife and built my art around it, connecting to it and trying to understand what happens to us and our souls after we leave this earthly plane. Sometimes, resilience is all I have to grow and move forward.









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