ART, WHATEVER IT TAKES

Since the early pandemic in 2020, Rome Art Program has conducted a series of interviews, “Art, Whatever It Takes.”
Artists, Art Critics, and Art Historians living in Italy, the U.S., and U.K., share their insights during these powerful times.

Interview with Janet McKenzie

Janet McKenzie is an Australian artist, author & co-editor of Studio International (2000-13). 

She has lived in Scotland since 1987 & published widely on contemporary art.

RomeArtProgram: Where do you live? And what is your background?

Janet McKenzie: I live on the east coast of Scotland. I published on contemporary drawing in my late twenties so that led to more writing than studio practice. When my husband was given a terminal prognosis I realised I had to prioritise the immediacy of drawing to be true to myself, to survive.

RAP: In your opinion is there a “creative method”?

Janet: There are many methods in our pluralist, global culture. If the conceptual & the subjective are the most vital components of contemporary art practice every artist has to evolve their own. Art education, with an emphasis on drawing enables students to find a means to work meaningfully: intellectually & intuitively. Most artists’ creative process evolves over a lifetime.

RAP: The ‘lockdown moment’ can set you on the path of some important change(s) in your creativity and style… Has this happened to you?

Janet: I was painting in Ireland in March, as Covid19 spread at a terrifying pace. I was addicted to the news initially. But no television one week led to immersing myself in nature, drawing in an ancient oak forest, the landscape, replete with references to change & transcendence. Disconnected from the wider world, with no distractions enabled greater focus. Fear & disbelief, the uncertainty of travel arrangements prompted me to examine nature, celebrate life & assert hope. I had just finished my book Catharsis that explored the visualisation of fear & bereavement. I made 20 drawings in Ireland and been productive since. I feel estranged from normality, solemn, humbled, also lucky.

RAP: What normally inspires you? Which is the most important inspirational source you have found in Rome?

Janet: I work mostly in nature with a comprehensive library & 35 years of writing behind me. My first trip to Italy (1982) was profound. Seeing Italian art & architecture in the flesh was incredible & I sobbed on the train when I left. The scale of art in Rome prompts a state of wonderment & a sense of being connected by a creative, humanist spirit. It’s a privilege, and also intimidating.

RAP: Is there a difference in working in Rome for an artist? What art medium do you prefer to work in?

Janet: I had a studio in Arthur Boyd’s villa in Tuscany in 1990. He gave me handmade oil paints & I did some of my best paintings in between interviewing him & exploring Florence, Lucca, San Gimignano. Now I mostly draw & photograph: paintings, sculpture and buildings. I work in oils, watercolour, gouache, ink, woodcuts. Compared to Scotland the light in Rome is intense, always energising.

RAP: Specific events and historical conditions have a significant role in the creative process; how does this pandemic emergency affect the Arts?

Janet: The closure of galleries & museums & the drop in cultural tourism is a serious threat to artists’ livelihoods day to day. Art publishing has been difficult for years. Maybe more people will buy art books? Hopefully it will give rise to better education programs, less disparity in commercial terms. Inner necessity has to drive long-term practice & its role in the wider community re-cast.

RAP: How are you feeling at this difficult moment and what made you feel this way? Are you optimistic for the future?

Janet: I experience sadness and anxiety as the death toll rises again; I am isolated but safe. I talk to artist friends around the world & and family most days. Drawing is the best way to cope – an internal dialogue asserts existential strength. It enables one to be part of a bigger cultural conversation.

RAP: What can Art contribute to history? Will “Art save us”?

Janet: Catharsis is based on the necessity of visual art in all our lives, the process itself: the capacity for image making to enable the redefinition of self when challenged by change or loss. Art is empowering, the key to survival.

RAP: What is your most ambitious dream? And the greatest sacrifice that you have made for your Art?

Janet: To concentrate on art practice irrespective of uncertain times, with its solitariness and no guarantee of recognition or external reward.

RAP: Recently, the artistic and cultural message of Italy and Rome was re-emerging as a great “work in progress”. Is this your point of view?

Janet: Living with a magnificent heritage can be intimidating. All creative lives are works in progress, when a city is labelled thus it can be self-conscious but prompted, I suspect, by a desire to make the past more pivotal to the present, to assert the contemporaneity of classical mythology, to challenge the global flattening of many aspects of culture.

RAP: Which is your favourite Italian, or Roman, place(s) of art (museum, gallery, monument…)?

Janet: Piero della Francesca, Giotto, Massacio, the Uffizi, the Colosseum.

RAP: Which period of Italian Art do you prefer? What is your favourite Italian work of art?

Janet: Late medieval, early Renaissance I can’t choose a single artwork. I tried.

RAP: How has Rome personally influenced you as an artist and a person?

Janet: Rome is spectacular for its intense light & layers of history & culture. Classical mythology or biblical narrative, inspire personal memory & narrative. One feels insignificant yet endowed with a voice. Rome fuses the quotidian with the transcendent; I am always inspired, humbled, nourished.

RAP: What’s your goal? What role does the artist have in society? Any final thoughts and advice?

Janet: I want to play a role in revaluing art as essential to culture, to education & to individual wellbeing.

http://www.janetmckenzie.co.uk