10 Questions with My Linh Mac

My Linh Mac is an award-winning artist, visual designer, and art educator based in Chicago. Mac is best known for her digital paintings, traditional oil paintings, and series of contemporary "galactic/no brush paintings", Ranbu. As an accomplished painter, her works portray beauty in humble places with her signature style of deep and vibrant accent colors. While Mac's paintings have varied genres, from conceptual, abstract, and figurative to contemporary, her digital and visual design works are commercial. Mac discovered nontraditional techniques bring further variety to her paintings through the use of color manipulation and the manipulation of materials and presentation platforms. Her niche is the ability to produce art within one medium that looks as if it were created within a different medium. Each of Mac's artworks "speaks for itself", her unique approach of combining elements and medium gives her the credibility of an inventive artist and visual designer. What makes her work stand out among young emerging artists is how she incorporates not only technical skills and knowledge from multiple creative fields of design, art, and technologies, but also her personal experience and cultural exposure from different parts of the world as a traveler.

Mac is originally from Vietnam and pursued her art education in Singapore, Australia, and the United States. Mac's multi-media artworks are represented by En Foco and RubberNeck Gallery in Chicago, Mona Niko Gallery- California, Brauer Museum- Indiana, Queen Victoria Museum and Gallery- Australia, INTACT international- Canada, Czong Institute for Contemporary Art (CICA) Museum- South Korea and in many private collections across the United States and around the world.

www.mylinhmac.com | @millie_d_mac

Irrigations | DESCRIPTION

The body works emphasize nature’s beauties at the micro-level of ‘moist’ and reflect the artist’s playfulness with paint medium. Like her earlier painting series, Mac continued pushing the boundaries between the world of design with its structures, principles, functionality, and the fine art world of rawness, chaos, and freedom. She developed and incorporated new torching paint techniques to manipulate the movements and lines’ density of the whole composition. The early stage of the production process was very time-consuming yet satisfying with the sensational details on the smallest canvas size that can be manufacture. ‘Irrigation’ mirrored Mac’s ambivalent and ambiguous perspective of the art world and the meaning of being an artist.

Additional information: The series is currently a part of BE ** PART INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION- which is registered as Guinness World Records Exhibition featuring over 600 artists and over 20,000 artworks by Atelier Montez Gallery in Rome Italy.

Fraction | DESCRIPTION

This series ambitiously replicates the beauty and delicateness of traditional pencil drawings while capturing elemental shapes of nature’s anatomy. Orchid Mantis (purple), Ruby Tiger (blue), Bombus Lapidariust (yellow), Lacewing (green), Hummingbird Hawk (red) were created a free form on Adobe Photoshop, starting with a single line, bent into an organic shape, and manipulated into hundreds of layers. Details overlay each other to enhance the depth and density and ‘X-ray film’ effect on the final look. The series delivers the important message to slow down and appreciate the simple yet beautiful things that life and nature offer. The final product is printed with jet ink on an acrylic panel or plexiglass or traditional photographic pearl paper with customized gallery frames by demand. A fraction was featured at En Foco Gallery Chicago as Mac’s first solo exhibition and was acquired in customized size for private residents in Chicago’s West Loop and Joliet-Illinois.

INTERVIEW

Could you tell us a little more about your background? 

I can start by saying I have always been helplessly obsessed with colors and doodling in classes (when I clearly shouldn't) since I was 5. I feel very fortunate to find my calling and passion for art early in life and have my family's support to pursue art education in different countries such as Singapore, South Australia, and the United States. At the earlier stage of my career, I primarily worked with traditional oil painting. Toward the end of my undergrad years, I discovered my creative niche of producing art within one medium that looks like it was created within a different medium. Around that same time, I was also inspired and found my new passion for design after taking an introductory class on graphic design. It was indeed challenged to juggle and balance both professions as of Fine Artist and Visual Designer at first and did not get any easier even now. But at the end of the day, it feels rewarding and wise to see things through different lenses and perspectives. 

What is your personal aim as an artist?                                                                                                       

At the macro level, just like every artist out there, my dream and goals are to have institutional recognition and make a high profit from doing what you love. If possible, I want to learn the universal language of art and incorporate it into my works at the micro-level. For example, a certain genre and style of art that is understood and appreciated by others can be hated by others. I want to ‘invent’ a new hybrid movement that is timeless and comprehensive to everyone.

In your Irrigations series (2020) you use acrylic paint to underline the small beauties of Nature. Your works look like abstract paintings, yet they represent real patterns. How do you approach these two different sides of your work?

I started working on Irrigation not long after wrapping up my Ranbu Series (a 2-year long project with over 70 pieces) so you can see some resembling between the 2 series. It all started with a spark of an idea that instead of continuing the sleek and ceramic looks, why not choose the opposite approach. So, I roughed up the canvas surface intentionally like sketching layout design with molding paste. Once I glazed the canvas with paint and let it spread and flow on its own, I torched the dried molding paste beneath the paint then let the medium transforms by the heat. This way, I can manipulate the pattern organically without making the final looks too manually constructed.

Your work has a strong bond with design and its principles. What are the key elements that you use in your art practice?

Functionalities, storytelling components, and personality/characters are my top criteria when it comes to designs. No matter what medium/media you are working with, without those three key elements, your works won’t communicate or engage with the viewers.

Your Fraction series (2018) is entirely dedicated to digital art. What are the main differences and similarities for you between traditional painting and digital art? 

Colossal difference: ‘Command+ Z’ is my guilty pleasure. With traditional painting, there is no going back or undo your mistakes; your only option is to go over it with a new layer of paint. Painting teaches me not to be afraid of making mistakes, so I found painting a very empowering art medium. On the other hand, with digital painting, you can always save the progress in different versions and undo your errors with just a click. This triggers the perfectionist in me. I have to admit that both mediums have somewhat shaped my personality over the years.

What is the most challenging part of your work? 

Creating the 'whaoo' factors in my work is the most challenging part because there are too many talented artists out there to compete with, which greatly motivates me. There are many challenges and ways, like staying resilient, patient with brainstorming, testing, trials, evaluation, adjustment, and problem-solving, to get your works reaching their best stage/form. With the current pandemic, 'getting funds' is now a new addition to my 'to tackle list'.

What about your creative process? How do you decide what medium to use and how?

I usually started rendering the final outcomes and my expectations in my head for big and formal projects, then doing a brief research on ideas, making a creative board, and sketches, followed by making prototypes if it involves new techniques and mediums. Same approach with small, fun/casual, and experimental projects, but minus the planning and making prototypes. Generally, with projects that give me more creative freedom, I usually invest more thoughts on personalizing the project and delivering more positive messages to my viewers.

Where do you find inspiration for your work?

My inspirations come from many places, countries I traveled to, what I learned from other creative individuals/experts that I looked up to from around the world. I also read many discoveries of literally everything on Earth, from astronomy, biology, history, sociology to household hacks and strange things on the internet. Surprisingly when I combine and connect the most random ideology online with my personal experience, new ideas spark, just like when I read about the evolution of X-ray (a completely random reading topic for the day). While brainstorming about a new project to express my appreciation for nature, I found inspiration for the Fractions series. 

You are very active in the art market as well. Do you have any upcoming shows or collaborations you are looking forward to?

Yes, I am currently part of a Guinness World Records Exhibition called 'Be**part' by Atelier Montez Gallery in Roma, Italy. The show is currently exclusively featuring the Irrigation series until the end of 2021. I had a successful 2020 career despite the pandemic, and I am determined to bring the same enthusiasm in 2021 with more ambitious goals. Including more opportunities to exhibit my works in European and Asian countries, I also want to collaborate with more big companies for branding projects soon. And, of course, I want to produce more quality works to satisfy my passion.

How do you see your work evolving in the upcoming year and what do you wish to achieve?

This is a tricky question to answer; I love it. I want my works to spread awareness about environmental degradation and evolve toward a sophisticated yet quirky style. I know it's an odd mix, and I hope to collaborate with creative institutions, agencies, and clients who share the same visions.