We were lucky to catch up with Myan Mcqueen recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Myan thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you recount a story of an unexpected problem you’ve faced along the way?

The most consistent problem I have is minor but ruthless, and that’s having blue cyanotype splotches everywhere, and I mean everywhere! On clothes I’m wearing when doing my projects, the floor, the counters, streaking down the walls, the tub from rinsing items out and sometimes even my toes. The cyanotype solution doesn’t start out blue, it starts out this very light yellow/green color and is hard to see where it’s landed to get ahead of it and clean it. Then once it’s exposed to light it’s all over and you’ve got blue everything. I had so many accidental blue splotches on my rug that I just had to cyanotype the whole thing to cover them all up! Luckily I love blue, so it’s easy for me to embrace but sometimes a little shocking the places it can reach.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I think a common pivot story these days starts in the pandemic, during which I went from working in restaurants for almost 10 years to a remote corporate job. Also during this time I was in an online course for herbalism, and enrolled in a program to get my license as a psilocybin facilitator in Oregon. With all this, I wasn’t used to being attached to a computer all day and desperately needed a creative outlet to separate work, school and play in my home. I was on the hunt for hobbies!
My best friend’s roommate was a photographer and had experience with cyanotype, which is the process of combining two solutions that become UV sensitive and turn a dark indigo blue when exposed to the sun. With this you can create patterns using different items to block the light, and is mainly used in photography. It’s an epic collaboration of science and art!
So on a trip to visit her we all got to play around with it and she taught me how it worked on both paper and fabric. We were using objects like chains, earrings, dried oranges, and other little knick-knacks for the prints however being super into nature I definitely gravitated towards using the plants we had around. The details the cyanotype could pick up from these tiny ferns and flowers had me hooked.
When I got home I started doing cyanotype prints on my clothes and loved how things were turning out. Completing an item start to finish takes about three days and has to all be done in the dark besides the exposure phase. This hobby was quickly becoming time consuming but I loved it. At that point a couple friends/family approached me about doing pieces for them and I really dove in from there. I love the idea of taking something a little forgotten and zhuzhing it up, so I thrift all the clothes I sell and love doing custom work on clothes people already own. Jackets and overalls are my best sellers but I also wanted to incorporate some smaller priced items so added in things like bandanas, zipper pouches and dinner napkins which have been popular for gifts.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

The lesson I had to unlearn is “I can’t do it” or the concept of “starving artist”. I always thought of myself as a realist, but that led to a lot of limitations. Thinking there’s already an incredible amount of amazing artists out there, how could I possibly stand out and make it work? Why would I be special enough to make a career out of this? But I had to realize that’s not what the art is about for me, I’d find the time to do this regardless because I find it so cool and fun. And while I’m not fully at the point yet where cyanotype can be my only source of income, I keep reminding myself that it’s also an artistic release and just try to trust the process while still working hard towards full career status.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

There’s a few nuggets of the process that I cherish when they pop up.
Finding an epic clothing item whether it’s vintage or especially unique and just getting to fall in love with it.
Getting inspired by new plants and playing around with fresh patterns that turn into my favorite pieces. The kind that I just keep going back to look at because they bring me so much joy.
And the big reward is seeing my pieces in “the wild.” Seeing people wear the clothes I’ve worked on out in public is still the most surreal experience and gives all the warm and fuzzies.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: sycamorecyanotypes

Image Credits

NA