Considering Art Podcast – Jaclyn Mednicov – multi-media

Introduction to Jacqueline Mednikoff

0:00Hello, Bob Chawndy here with another Considering Art podcast in which I talk to an artist about their work and something of their life. My guest today is the American artist Jacqueline Mednikoff, who applies her talents to painting, sculpture, video and installation. Jacqueline

0:33is based in Chicago, where she took her MFA at the School of the Art Institute there, SAIC, and where she also teaches. Jacqueline's recent focus has been on nature, but what's particularly interesting about her is that she incorporates things like flowers and weeds into her work by pressing them into clay. Some of these botanicals are wilting, and that adds a metaphorical element to the work. Her key influence on her has been residences she completed in Japan and the Netherlands. She has exhibited in many a gallery and museum in the States, and I met Jacqueline

1:10at her solo exhibition entitled Imprints, Fragments, Reliefs, which is currently on show at a private house and gallery space in Primrose Hill in London. This is the home of curators Ian Patti and Lupe Sanchez of the Wolfe Collective, which is dedicated to supporting multidisciplinary artists like Jacqueline. In the show are many examples of work on paper, ceramic objects including vessels and fragments, relief paintings, even her own wallpaper. There are collaborations too, suspended from the ceiling

1:42as a mobile of falling leaves created from monoprints Jacqueline made from plants from the garden of Harikane, who's a textile artisan from Japan, who then weaved metal into the fabric. The pair also collaborated on a wall tapestry. I spoke with Jacqueline at the exhibition. Jacqueline, welcome to the podcast. Lovely to meet you. And we're in a private home, which is quite unusual for exhibitions, I guess. Yes, it is. I'm very excited to be here. It's a different space to show in rather than a white

2:13cube or a typical gallery. So I have all these nooks and crannies and I get to show the variety of work in different spaces throughout the home.

Family and Creative Background

2:20Now your name, Mednikov, have you got Russian heritage? Yes, I definitely have Russian heritage on both sides, but I'm fourth generation, so it's quite removed. So what brought your ancestors to the US? Oh, did you have to ask? I wish I knew a lot, but somehow the stories did not get best down. So I don't know a lot about the past. So it's not so exciting. I mean, I'm sure it was at the time and dramatic and a lot of history there. But if I find out, I will get back to you.

2:52Were your family creative in any way? Yes, my father, he went to culinary school, so he was a chef. And then he opened a pizza restaurant in Chicago. He grew up in Boston and his father was an artist, but he made his money being a house painter and a wallpaper hanger. And so I have a couple of his works, but he didn't get to explore it that much because he had to make a living. So it's definitely, I think my father's side is quite creative and artistic. Well, it's interesting because you've gone into wallpaper a bit, haven't you? Yes. And I have an old, old card of my grandfather's when he was probably 40 years old that says

3:26wallpaper hanger. Oh, nice. That's nice. Yeah. And were you close to nature growing up? Not so much. I lived in the suburbs. And for me, I think I was always seeking something that was more, that I could be surrounded by nature. So throughout my life from upbringing till now, I've just been looking for a more ununiform kind of architecture that I grew up in, in the suburbs and just found like solace in nature. So did you enjoy nature as, say, as a teenager?

3:59Definitely. But I can't say there were spots to find it so much in the suburbs. There wasn't like a forest nearby that I could wander in. So in my mind, I was wandering in nature. And when did you first develop the love of making art? I'd say in high school, I just was trying to find an outlet and was interested in painting, but I was too shy and nervous to do it in high school. So I took a class outside of high school with some lovely retired women. So there were about 10 women and myself that they were probably in their 70s. And I learned how to oil paint in this class. So I was very lucky

4:33that I was able to do that. And then I started taking classes in school. And then I went to undergrad where I studied at University of Kansas, where I got a BFA in fine arts.

Early Artistic Interests

4:42Right. Because you initially studied social work, didn't you? You really dug deep. Yes, for about a year, I thought that would be my path. But more so because I didn't have any models of artists in my family. Maybe I had creative types, but I didn't know this could be a career. And so after my first year in school, I went back to Chicago for the summer. And I took a painting class at Columbia College. And then I fell in love with it. And then I transferred into that major.

5:13And had you any designs about being, say, a social worker before you succumbed to your passion? Well, I love talking to people. I love helping and listening. So I've even still thought about it now. Would I want to still do that? But now I teach and I have these conversations with my students all the time. So I feel like I'm still interacting in that way. I'm not a therapist or a social worker, but looking back, I'm not surprised that that was the path I was thinking of taking. When you lived in New York, you became what you say is an art preparator, preparator. What is that?

5:49I was kind of behind, not kind of, I was behind the scenes at Christie's and I was working in their prints and drawings department. So I was framing things for their auctions and really organizing in the background. I had that job for two years. But to be honest, that's what got me to the cities to have a full-time job and afford to live in New York City. I met some wonderful people, some artists, but I wanted to be a makeup artist. So I had my art degree. I had a studio in Brooklyn. I was doing my art, but for my job, I thought that was not for me being a preparator. And then I got a job at

6:20MAC Cosmetics in Soho, which was a really exciting company at the time that was very creative. So I was doing makeup and body painting and all kinds of creative ways of applying makeup. And I did that for about eight years while I had my studio and my art practice. And who were you making up? Just any man or woman who came in and wanted to try out things. So it's a retail store, but it's very, like I said, creative. So I didn't feel like it was about sales. It was about texture and color and mostly beauty.

6:51So you didn't make up any Hollywood film stars? No, but I worked with some well-known artists like Lisa Yuskovich came in. Many, many artists that I knew their names, but I didn't know their faces because at the time, I mean, the internet was there, but there wasn't social media and ways to really look up people. So then I would ask them their name. They would tell me and I was like, Oh, I'm a big fan of your work. And so it was an exciting, exciting time. You know what? I'm wrong. Whoopi Goldberg came in. Yeah. Yeah. There were a few, but we could talk about that for a while now. This was going

7:21back quite a few years. So now it's all jumping in my head of, yeah. Come on. Tell me a Whoopi Goldberg story. She had her favorite lip liner that she came in and bought consistently. So I didn't, don't believe I applied it to her, but we did talk and I sold it to her and she was very nice. Yes. Yeah. It was exciting and an exciting time. Sean Penn was in there. Really? Yeah. He's just won a... He didn't get makeup, but he was there with someone else. He just won an Oscar, hasn't he? Yeah. So it was very, that time was super exciting.

7:51Yeah. Yeah.

Focus on Nature

7:53Great. And then you did your MFA from the School of Art Institute in Chicago, SAIC. What was your focus there? I was in the painting and drawing department, but that school is very open to let you work interdisciplinary. And before I had gotten into the program, I was doing a lot of work of my late father's belongings that he left behind. So I was a painter, but after he passed, I was really playing around with materials and thinking of them in a way as paintings. So I applied with that to get into the program. Once I got in, I was really branching out into video

8:25installation. I was transferring images onto my wall in my studio and doing sculptures. So I was kind of, I was in the painting and drawing department, but I was expanding into other mediums. You do painting, sculpture, as you say, video and installation. What's the advantage of having all of these disciplines?

8:44I get excited about material. So for me, it's like, I always start with nature. I use it as a transfer, a print, a texture, and then the material just shifts almost depending on what's in front of me and my surroundings. So it gives me the flexibility. And I don't, I love painting, but I felt a little confined to this one medium. And so once I opened myself up that, oh, I can use plaster, I can use acrylic paint as a mold, a casting material, or I could do ceramics. And it just, I don't know, expanded the work.

9:14And do you encourage your students to go for multi-mediums? Absolutely. But, you know, I teach a class called painting practice. So we start doing an overview of painting. And that semester, it's really just about the paint and teaching them how to paint. But once beyond that, I really try and push them to play with materials. And then another course that I teach is called painting materials and techniques. And so in that room, we teach everything from egg tempera to encaustic. And then I expand their knowledge of how to work with paint and turn it into something new and do something different with it.

9:46When did nature become the focus of your art? Because just looking around, you know, this space here, there's nature appears in very many different guises, different mediums. So when did it first become your focus? So it's a great question. When I was living in New York, I was really just going to work, going to the studio, hustling, bustling. And then I decided to apply to Vermont Studio Center, which is an art residency. And this is about a little less than 10 years out of undergrad. And when I went to that program, it's in the middle of nature. So I was able to slow down there for a whole

10:20month, make work. And then when I came back to New York, what I noticed everywhere was nature really growing up in the, popping up in the sidewalks and the cracks and just thinking about nature taking over these man-made spaces. And from that moment on, I'd say it was all nature. It wasn't that I didn't do it before, but that was a big shift where I completely focused on mostly destruction and nature coming together. Right. Well, we'll talk about destruction in a minute, but I've seen some of your paintings.

10:51Um, you have some of nature then, but you also have quite abstracted works, don't you? Um, there's a series you did called Vastness, which is almost Rothko-like. Yeah. Yeah. So that series came about, I was going to put images in it. I started the painting and then I wiped it out. And it was one of those aha moments of, oh, this says a lot without having the images in it. Um, so I think there are two ways that I like to work. One are those

11:22Vastness paintings, which I haven't worked on in a while, but thinking about, um, the vastness of time and space. And then the other ones are the more tactile and the closeness of nature. So these two kind of opposite ends of nature is what I'm really intrigued by. But you went from painting nature to actually incorporating nature into your works. What gave you that idea? In grad school, before I did the Vastness paintings, I was making casts and molds with plants. And after I got done sort of sorting through my father's things, I was looking around

11:57at nature and using it as a metaphor for loss and time. And so I was looking at nature that was always deteriorating or in a transition phase. And I was taking photographs of that. And then I decided to actually start collecting, foraging the plants and then making impressions with them. So I don't know if that's a clear path, but that's sort of how it came about. And then more recently, I felt a bit frustrated with using a brush and trying to create the image of nature. So I really am enjoying this like gathering, foraging, collecting plants, and then having

12:27that kind of make the mark with, with not that we're collaborating, but that kind of back and forth between using the plant and then composing it and seeing also the surprise of what happens and chance. So the death that your father really instilled in you, did it, the kind of impermanence of life, the fragility of life and how nature reflects that passage of time? Exactly. Yeah. I just think of it as a metaphor. I can't stop comparing those two. Like you,

12:57you never know what's going to happen. It's always shifting and changing. And I experienced loss before that too, starting from, you know, a young child, but that was the closest person to me who had passed. So then it really just was like, okay, this, this is not a permanent thing. And so nature just shows that constantly. I'm interested what you just say about where you collect your nature flora from, because you talk about weeds and grass growing between the cracks. It's like you kind of

13:29like, uh, uh, you championing the underdog almost. Yeah. I like those ones that are sort of left behind and the overlooked parts of nature or the ones you want to pluck out. It's like, I'm interested in beauty, but not too much beauty, if that makes sense. So, and I look for certain textures and things that are growing up that are overlooked. What does it say about you though, Jacqueline? Yeah. That's a little, that is deep. I'm not sure. Um, I think I want to pay attention to the

13:59things that we don't see. Um, yeah. I don't know what that says about me. I'll, I'll get back to you on that. As I say, a middle child. Well, well, you know, um, you, you, you saying you studied social worker, you had a feeling for other people basically. And it's almost a feeling that you've got a feeling for these plants that are overlooked. Yes. And when I see people pulling them out, I'm like, no, give that to me. And I just like, I feel so when my, my, my, my dad was getting sick and I was going to visit him and help him, I would see these stacks of things. And so I don't know if

14:32he was quite a hoarder, but he definitely couldn't let go. And now I find myself being a collector of these plants that, that are, that other people would get rid of, but maybe it's just a way of trying to preserve time. And that's also why I like to do these transfers and impressions because it holds the plant in that moment of time. So when did you first start using them? Did you, you press them into what clay? Yeah. In graduate school, I took a mold making and casting class. And so I use those to press in the clay and then cast plaster into that form. And then from there,

15:05I thought, well, this is quite heavy. Plaster is beautiful. I love how it makes that impression like a fossil and it's so detailed. And then I made another mold of that. And then now I work with acrylic a lot. And I think of it as like a paint skin or relief that then pulls out of the mold and it's very similar to plaster and that way, but it's very flexible. So it's more, um, it sounds like experimentation is a key aspect of your work. A hundred percent. Definitely. I get very excited in the moment I start making one thing and then I think, Oh, this would be great as a texture. And

15:37then I make a rubbing of that. And then I just try to see where it leads me. That's the exciting part of discovery. And how do you cope with mistakes? Well, in the beginning, I hated them and I got really upset. This isn't what I wanted. And now I've just learned kind of like the idea of impermanence that this is how it goes. And so the cracks in the ceramics and the ones that fail, I've embracing and incorporating them into the body of work. You do lots of botanical monoprints. Do you use them as a kind of way of, it's like a preliminary sketch?

16:11Yes. I love to sketch with a pencil and look at something, but I'd never do it to be completely honest. I just think the way of printing is very quick. It's also relaxing. I capture the, this moment. Um, I can do them maybe a lot in a day. Sometimes I layer them so it takes longer, but yeah, it's a way to kind of loosen up and move into the other work. Yeah. So how would you start in your process for doing that? Um, I often just go into my backyard

16:42and pick out the weeds that maybe somebody else would pull out and I collect those. And then I use different types of acrylic paint or ink and I ink up a plate. And then I do a series of press pressings with the plants, the ink, and then paper on top. Right. So when you're out and about on a walk or something, you see a weed and does that spark something in your imagination? It definitely sparks something. Um, sometimes I'll grab it, but other times I feel funny doing that, or maybe it's something that fell off. And so it's just loose on the street. Or if I ever,

17:15if my partner husband brings me flowers, I'll save them until they're like molding and then I'll make a print of it. So I really like holding onto things and letting them transform and change. So it's a matter of like where I get them. Either I pull them, I find them, or if they're given to me, then I use them. I wish I could let you loose in my garden. I would too. I could find a lot of things, I'm sure. A lot of weeds. Yeah. A lot of weeds. Good. That's good. Keep them. Is that where your inspiration comes just from everyday life really?

17:46Yeah. Everyday life. So I've been fortunate to travel. I did the European ceramic work center in the Netherlands where I did ceramics and around their grounds. I believe it was called uncut maze. So they really let things go wild. Um, so after that time period, I was able to kind of cut some things or things that were falling. When I was in Japan, I also looked around my surroundings. So it's interesting to see, you know, these different regions and the plants that either are the same as Chicago or quite different that I could never find in Chicago. So it's also a lot about place and then capturing memory and those moments.

Residency in Netherlands

18:19Well, let's talk about your residency in the Netherlands. You went to the European ceramic work center in, uh, Oysterweig and you did a project there called Vessages of Time. Tell me all about that experience. Yeah. So in 2021, actually a couple of years before, um, my husband, Brian Anderson was at the ceramic, the European ceramic work center. And I was at a different residency in Tilburg. So I was visiting, we were visiting each other and I was learning more about what was happening there. And I had used clay in the past for my molds, but I never fired it. So I didn't see myself. How

18:52could I work with ceramics, even though I liked the feel of it. So when, um, Brian was there, I was able to do a couple of works and get them fired. And then I, it opened up just these possibilities of what I can do with clay. And then a couple of years later I applied and I got in. So I spent three months there and they have technicians on site that will help you if you don't know about ceramics. Um, so they definitely were helpful, but I almost was alone in my studio and just letting things dry and break and embracing that transition. Um, and going around the grounds, like I said, and collecting the plants and just really experimenting with glazes and in the unknown,

19:27cause I didn't know what I was doing. And that I think worked out in the end. It was frustrating in the beginning. And then when I let go of this, not knowing and enjoying the process, it clicked for me. So you had used clay before, but not as a, uh, as an end product. Right. I would use it, make the mold and then throw it out. And I'm not about throwing things out in this way. So yeah, it just was like, Oh, I could use that as a piece or, um, make something else out of it. And the other fascinating thing about ceramics is I think why a lot of ceramicists

19:57do it is that transformation of you make it one way. And then when you open the kiln, it's completely different, at least the ones I was making too, since I didn't know how to work the glazes in a way that they were going to be what I expected. And so that unexpected quality is what drew me to the material. It must be quite exciting if you're not quite sure how something's going to be turned out. Yeah. It's super fascinating. Yeah. So what was the aim of the project was simply to make whatever you like? Yeah. I mean, I went in with this idea of vestiges in time of like, how can I

20:28really preserve that moment? And the impressions are like vestiges of these plants and fossilized, like really the way the clay captures all that texture is what I was curious, like interested in doing and marking that time, those three months that I was there. But you use color quite a lot in your ceramics, don't you? Yeah. Like I feel like hints of color, but overall they were quite neutral. Sometimes I use blue at that time. I wasn't using blue. Um, but there was another resident there who,

20:58was really, she's a ceramicist. So she was like, try this yellow and try this. And, and it could open up a lot of possibilities. And before in my work, I was using a lot of color. The last few years have been a bit more neutral, more true to, I think, nature. Then you did a stint in Japan. Yes. All the ceramicists I interview always go to Japan, don't they? Yeah. Um, I think your husband was the main reason for going there, but what did you make out of the trip? Yeah. So I was fortunate. We were in a town, um, that's known for ceramics and porcelain

21:31in Saga Prefecture. So I did a lot of porcelain. I worked out of somebody's studio there. There are very few people who spoke English. It was a rural town, um, amazing, beautiful, and surrounded by nature. And so I was also, again, going on walks, collecting plants, collecting leaves. Um, I did a few projects there. One, I was collecting leaves and then dipping them in ceramic and letting the plant burn away. So you're really left with the, like, skeleton of the material and then working with vessels. And for that, because I'm not the kind of artist where I, I don't want to build the form.

22:03I kind of want to, I want to find the form. So I went to the mold maker in town and I asked you of any molds that you've thrown out. And so he said, yeah, here's some, just take them. So a lot of the forms come from these molds that were already made by artisans or whoever they were and they discarded them. And so then I kind of re-brought it. So you learned lots of new techniques. Yeah. New techniques for sure. Right. Yes. And you started collaborating then, didn't you? Because I'm, I'm looking here in the space we're at, there's a hanging sculptures, mobile of

22:39falling leaves basically, but they're a combination of textile and metal. And this is, I believe, a collaboration. Yes. This is a collaboration with an artisan named Mikia Toyoshima. Um, and he's represented by somebody who owns a company named Chapango. And that is a mutual friend of my husband's, my husband's and myself. And so we connected with Mikia and I went to... Is your husband an artist too? Yes. He's a craft-based industrial designer and he works a lot with ceramics and different materials. So we're both interested in materials, but he's much more research-based, um, and also

23:13experimental, but I'm more artist side. And so, and Mikia is an artisan based in Kyoto, Japan, and he does metal weavings on jacquard loom. And so these are all metal strands that are made of copper, gold, um, stainless steel that he weaves together. So usually he's been working on his own images, but he's been interested in working with different artists and designers. So he sent me plants from his dye garden because he's, he was in Kyoto. I was in Saga. So he shipped plants to me in a box and then I made monotypes with those plants. And then I sent him the image and then he did a

23:47weaving of it on his jacquard loom. Then I cut those big weavings into these leaves to make this installation. And then the rug is a hand-tucked indigo-dyed, um, kibiso silk. Yes. I should say that the hanging on the wall is a, is a rug, uh, with designs of leaves on. So what part did you play in that and what part did, uh, was your collaborator? Yeah. So he, so he sent me the leaves from his garden and then I inked up plates and I made prints of them, monotype prints. And then I had an image of that print and I sent him the image. And so then

24:21he turned that image into this hand-tucked rug. So it's basically the same design blown up really large and there it's all hand-dyed indigo, um, silk as well. The exhibition that we're currently sitting within, um, contains stuff that you've done over the few years, isn't it? Can I just ask you about the remnants series you did? There are plants pressed into what presumably clay was it and then, but they're very dark. They're very black. Why did you choose to make them black?

24:54So that series is, um, egg tempera on gesso. So it's a very traditional gesso. And this is one of the things I do in my teaching where we teach how to make gesso from rabbit skin glue and calcium carbonate, mix that together. And in, have you heard of pestiglia, which is a old technique where you would build up a picture frame with the gesso and carve into it. So then I learned it's almost like plaster. It really keeps an impression. So I was playing with the gesso, pressing the plants, and then it creates an impression in that surface. So similar to my other work. And egg

25:26tempera traditionally is a very luminous, um, paint, but I wanted to work against that and make it more opaque. So I just did tons of tons of layers thinking about tar or plants being covered in this darkness. And of course, hanging next to these, uh, examples of your wallpaper, where did that idea come from? So I've always been intrigued by pattern and textiles. And I think just the beauty of it, and maybe growing up, we had a lot of wallpaper in my house.

25:57Yeah. Because we said earlier that one of your, your grandfather made it. Yeah. Yeah. So he was a wallpaper hanger and an artist. The wallpaper in our home growing up, I don't think was by end when we knew, but I definitely grew up around a lot of pattern in the eighties. And, and then over the years, I've just been interested in doing textile design or surface design wallpaper, thinking about the domestic space and bringing pattern into the home and bringing nature into the home. And so about 2022, I just thought, you know, on the side, I'm an artist,

26:29but I also want to do this other project. I started designing wallpaper. Um, all of it comes from nature. Some of it comes directly from my art and some of the patterns I collaborate with a block printing company in Japan. Um, they're based in Kyoto. So I do a lot of work with them too, making prints. And then they have these like century old blocks that they do just transfers and ink on paper, but they don't digitize it. So they allowed me to digitize it and turned it into a wallpaper pattern. And so I kind of changed the patterns a bit, but it's still a collaboration with them.

27:01Well, of all these things, your, your prints, uh, your paintings, your installations, video, even, um, do you have a favorite? Hmm. No, I don't think I have favorite. I think it really depends on where I'm at, um, my mood and the emotional response to the work. So I don't, yes, now I might say ceramics, but no, I have no favorites. I like to experiment and work back and forth. And are you experimenting in new ways? I mean, can you see your future going into things that you

27:38haven't tried before? Yeah, I'm really curious about glass and, uh, metal casting metal. So those are two that I'm interested in doing next if I can. Yeah. I want to expand the materials. I also want to expand the scale. So the relief paintings, I have quite a small studio. I hope the next step is to scale up because I really want to respond. I like the intimacy, but I think it might be nice also to see the response to nature in a more expansive way. How will you incorporate nature into your glass? Uh, the vision now is more casting glass into the same molds that I use for the other

28:14work. Right. So you get the shapes in glass? Yeah. The shapes in glass, basically. Yes. Well, that'd be interesting. Yeah. How do you manage to incorporate all these mediums in your studio? It must be quite big. Oh, it is not big. I'm constantly moving things out into the hallway and then working and moving them back into the studio. And when I'm in the studio, I sort of think, wow, I'm working in all these mediums. How does this work fit together as a whole? Because often you'll see an artist working in one medium. I mean, not all, of course. And then, um, being in this

Studio Practice and Future Projects

28:47home of Ian's and the way that it's designed. And then with Lupe's curatorial vision, which is incredible. She just really had a way of arranging the work where it tells a narrative and it all flows together as one whole. Jacqueline, thanks so much for talking about it. You're such a wide range of art that you've developed. Thank you. It's been wonderful to talk to you. I really appreciate this interview. The multidisciplined, multi-talented Jacqueline Mednikoff. Thanks for listening. Join me, Bob Chaundy, to consider more art next week.

29:17Bye for now.