Ottawa Artist Shirley MacKenzie maintains a busy art studio, working on special exhibits, commissions, contracts, book cover design and art Illustration.
Artist's Statement
As a much younger artist, I ran towards the romantic idea of becoming a Visual Artist, always in front of an easel, tirelessly perfecting my own unique style; preparing volumes of collections for exhibition. Like many artists I did find myself, hard at work, wherever the next creative endeavor took me. With each new project came unique challenges that pushed me out of my comfort zone, like learning to self manage, curate and advertise. I had the great opportunity to create many worlds, within museums, books, publications and classrooms. I don’t think I had ever seen any of these on my horizon while in art school. It is now more of a comfort to not try to plan so much as allow the next surprise.
"Life is something all of us have to breath in. It is on the exhale the artist finds her creation – like the soft fog a breath leaves on glass – a new world is expressed."
- Shirley MacKenzie
Fine Art
Whether I work in acrylic or watercolour, pencil or ink I focus in on the moment, those few seconds of dialogue between myself and the subject--an instant that tells me another story needs to be told--a conversation that hopefully grabs the viewer and begs their participation. Art to me is always about this exchange. It is so satisfying to see a piece become something more than the conversation that I had with it.
Illustration
Its meaning in the Oxford Dictionary: a drawing in a book or magazine, one that explains something.
I'd like to believe that a drawing in a book or magazine does more than explain something. It gets you to that place the author has designed. It invites each individual's imagination to fill in the pieces to an ever evolving puzzle. Conversely, the illustration can be 'the thing' whereby the words must do the filling in. I love the idea that I can throw my viewer the lure, and they can grab on so naturally as to fall willingly into the story.