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Art & Life with Gary Mackender

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Gary Mackender.

Gary, please kick things off for us by telling us about yourself and your journey so far.
I hold an art degree from the University of Kansas and it was in Lawrence, Kansas where I did my formative work. It wasn’t until I moved to Tucson, Arizona in 1989 that I started finding my own voice.

Shortly after arriving in Tucson I landed work as the artist for the I-10 and Miracle Mile percent-for-art project designing six large murals and the pedestrian fence. I have also collaborated with the Ben’s Bells organization as the designer for a few Tucson murals.
My art work throughout the 90s was then cut short as I toured the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand with The Mollys, an Irish Tex-Mex band up until 2000. Shortly thereafter I landed work for a decade at the University of Arizona where I ran a multimedia lab known as the Virtual Reality Annex. My main focus there was shooting high resolution digital still imagery to create VR content; panorama images, cubic QuickTime movies and object QuickTime movies. Today I work as a full-time visual artist and musician.

Can you give our readers some background on your art?
My work is about discovering what evolves when you take something initially meant for one thing and do something else with it…turn it upside-down and sideways and inside out and watch the transformation. I use what I call Americana-esque Objects (discarded bric a brac mass produced for the American consumer for the past 60 years), and reassemble them so that the viewer may see these objects in a different way from their initial purpose.

It’s also about participating in and observing the immediate world around me, and then going to work every day and making something about that world, which leads to making something else, which then leads to some other thing. These works are mostly sculptural in nature as wall or table pieces.

In your view, what is the biggest issue artists have to deal with?
For any artist, being able to support yourself and perhaps a family while creating, displaying, marketing, and promoting your work has always been the biggest challenge.

What’s the best way for someone to check out your work and provide support?
I am not currently represented by a gallery but one can easily reach me by going to garymackender.com. Studio visits (in Tucson) are encouraged. Also, I have an open studio every fall with all new work. You can email me to get on my mailing list at gmac@garymackender.com.

Contact Info:

Image Credit:
Gary Mackender

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2 Comments

  1. Laney oxman

    September 24, 2018 at 9:17 pm

    Love your work
    References a bit of mine
    Laneyoxmanartidt.com

    Reply

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