Meet Vanessa McKernan: Painter

We had the good fortune of connecting with Vanessa McKernan and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Vanessa, Let’s talk about principles and values – what matters to you most?
Protect and respect your studio time. For me this means committing to a specific number of hours each day where I will be in my studio painting. Respecting this time means staying away from social media and emails and staying focused on my painting or drawing. I might stare at the canvas for 30 minutes without making a single mark but for me that is still time invested in the work. Looking is a very important part of painting. Protecting the time means letting the other people in my life know that I am not available during those hours. So for me this means scheduling child care and then not planning a zoom call or lunch with a friend in the middle of studio time. Multi-tasking is the death of creativity for me. If I stay focused on the work, it is amazing what I can accomplish in 4-5 hours.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I am an oil painter working primarily on canvas, wood and mylar. I think of my paintings as narratives that try to investigate what is is to be human. I pull from contemporary culture, personal anecdotes, and dreams to explore within the painting, the complexity and fragility of our relationships with ourselves, each other and nature. I work primarily from imagination and I love to play with color, line and pattern. For me the process of creating a work, the day to day engagement with the paint, is where the gold is. My goal has always been to get my life to a point where I can spend the majority of my week in front of a canvas. It took me roughly 12 years to get here. I think I got where I am today as the result of a steadfast devotion to my work and to the development of my own personal style. I never put myself in a place where I needed to make the kind of paintings I thought people would want to buy. I kept a part time job to help cover my bottom line so that I could continue to make work that I felt was authentic and exploratory. After 10 years people started buying that work, and as result I am to spend more of my time creating and developing it. In December I received a grant from The Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation which was huge for me. This grant money will essentially pay me to work in the studio for the next eight months. Foundations like this one are so important for artists establishing their careers. If you are a wealthy individual looking for something productive to do with your money, invest in the arts!

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I am from Toronto, Canada so visiting Los Angeles for me is all about spending time outdoors and looking at art. 1. KOHN GALLERY has a fantastic roster of contemporary painters and would definitely be on my “to visit” list. 2. The art and architecture at the J. Paul Getty Museum is so incredible, you just don’t get this indoor outdoor museum experience anywhere else in North America. 3. If I am in LA for a week I am definitely making the trip to Joshua Tree National Park. The lack of sound, the landscape, it takes me outside of myself in the best kind of way. Also my husband proposed to me there so it holds a special place in my heart! Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I feel like 2020/21 is the year of the family and so I have to dedicate my shoutout to my mother Nora, my sister Rachel and my husband Christian. I had my second child in 2020 at the beginning of the pandemic. Balancing a career and motherhood is so intense and this year I have only been able to do it because of their support. They love me and feed me (Christian is an amazing cook) and my mom stays with my one year old most days so I can go to the studio.

Website: https://www.vanessamckernan.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vainter

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vmckernan