It's Always Been There

LANA MCDONAGH
TITLE: WORK IN PROGRESS
MEDIA: ACRYLIC PAINT, COLLAGE, POSCA
ARTIST STATEMENT
I have no formal art training and I tend to paint in a very
slapdash manner - usually when I get an idea, it’s all very
spontaneous and urgent; I will literally dip my hand into a
pot of paint and throw a load of colours on the canvas. With
the shapes that are born out of those colours, I will start
to refine the idea I first had in mind. I generally start out
painting with my fingers, mainly with acrylics, and then I will
move on to brushes or Posca Pens for any detail I want to add.
I guess you would call my style naïve art. I’ve always been
drawn to outsider art and artists from the avant-garde CoBrA
movement. I like the childlike quality, the lack of pretence and
the interplay between the conscious and the unconscious.
In the piece I have done for the Carhartt WIP project, I looked
to incorporate not only the jackets but a bit of the history
surrounding the chore jacket and the people who would have
originally worn them - those that toiled; labourers, farmers
etc. It was fun to take my very abstract figures and place them
within the context of a brand.
BACKGROUND
Art runs in my family. My great-grandfather was an artist and so
is my mother. I grew up with it all around me but never formally
studied it. I am currently working on an exciting project with
some musicians which people will find out more about soon, as
well as an exhibition at the end of the year.
WWW.LANAMCDONAGH.COM
@LANA_MCDONAGH
56 / WHAT A CHORE: EXPRESSIONS THROUGH CANVAS