We recently connected with Makenzie Lander and have shared our conversation below.
Makenzie, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?
One of the most meaningful projects that I have worked on in the first year after graduating was a collaboration with a dear friend of mine and a creative peer from the Savannah College of Art and Design. Hollis Maxson is an incredible fashion designer who creates handmade garments filled with intention and history. I connected with Hollis based on these ideas, as they are also reflected in the ideas that I champion in my work as well. We started with the shared belief and idea that garments hold memory and purpose, and the story behind a garment is built upon the foundation of the materials that create the garment, and then is extended as the individual uses and lives within it. In my work, I look to the discarded to tell unexpected stories. We came together to create a plan to take the fabric scraps collected during the process of fabrication of Maxson creations and then repurpose them to tell a larger story to mimic the history and essence of Maxson and its generational roots in Wareham, Massachusetts. This project was a beautiful blend of perspectives and ideas while championing something so integral to my work. To take things otherwise discarded and to bring them to a new light. This is a continuation of ideas from my senior thesis project for my BFA at the Savannah College of Art and Design, where I used discarded materials from the fashion building at SCAD, canvas, muslin, fabric, and repurposed them to create suspended figures to display memory place and challenge the viewer by considering perspective and space. We wanted to tackle this same idea with the work I was creating in Wareham, and wanted to display this work in the outdoor space that inspired Hollis so deeply growing up. So we did just that. I first immersed myself in Maxson’s home by hearing stories, looking through old family photos, and creating sketches about the Maxson family and the history of the family home, where this brand was born. I collected the discarded materials in the jacket-making process and began arranging the fabric scraps to mimic different reference materials, until the final image of a figure on a horse was created, honoring a beloved family member. I spent the next two weeks creating this work by sewing and hand-painting each detail with care, experimenting with the sewing machine as I pulled the work together. I felt so honored to create alongside Hollis during this time and really immerse myself in the environment. This piece was made to be a visual representation of the huge emotional and, at times, physical weight that can be built in spaces with multifaceted sharing of personal knowledge and skills through familial ties. This idea is centered at the core of Maxson, and honors my perspective of the power that memories hold in shaping who we are and become. The sharing of knowledge with someone you love is the greatest gift, and this piece became an heirloom of love, history, memory, and intention.
Makenzie, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
My name is Makenzie Lander, I also go by MKNZ, and I am a multifaceted artist whose work explores emotions in human connection. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and raised in Dallas, Texas, I cultivated my artistic voice in Savannah, Georgia, within the vibrant creative community of the Savannah College of Art and Design. Graduating from SCAD with a BFA in Fine Arts and a minor in Fibers equipped me with skills across a range of hands-on and digital creative processes. I am now continuing my creative endeavors in Nashville, Tennessee.
My creative journey began when I was just a young girl, with a deep curiosity for color and drawing. I began drawing to create coloring book pages for my younger sisters. I loved watching the joy spread across their faces as they had something that was just their own, to make them more personal with their own applications of color. Growing up surrounded by sisters, including an identical twin, I developed a profound sensitivity to the nuances of relationships, perception, as well as physical and imagined space. This grew into a deeper curiosity as I watched my dad paint when I was a young girl. My father is a naturally gifted artist without formal training, and his creative expression and play truly inspired me. I began learning to paint with the guidance of my father in my childhood home’s garage.
I grew up as an athlete with a passion for the game of soccer. The game was a part of me and integral to my identity until one day, I had to quit. I had sustained several head injuries, with some effects that will stick with me for the rest of my life, so I had to let go of the game and the identity that was tied to it. At this time, I looked inward and asked the question, who am I if not a teammate? As I was working through this time, I began working through my struggles with pencil and paint. As the years went on, my curiosity and creativity began to grow more than ever before, although it was always there. I began to shape a new identity and purpose through art-making. I recognized the healing powers that it had for me in times of struggle, and began my journey of wanting to share that with the world. Painting has allowed me to be honest and to communicate ideas in ways that surpass language. My vocabulary became emotions and investigating how they are tied to images, individuals, colors, and the essence of connection.
This passion led me to take the leap and pursue my dream of being an artist by going to the Savannah College of Art and Design. The opportunity to go to SCAD forever changed my life and gave me creative skills beyond painting to develop my ideas and effectively communicate them as an artist and designer. Collaboration was deeply integral to my time at SCAD, as I collaborated with fashion designers, fashion marketing, and film students to create multifaceted stories that were both personal and brand-based. These experiences equipped me with the skills to work with many kinds of individuals and create works of art that aided storytelling.
MKNZ paint is a small business I created in high school to begin selling my artworks, which then grew into something more during my time at SCAD. It started with playfully attempting to paint with bleach on thrifted garments, and then it grew into a sustainable small business where I sourced thrifted garments and painted each face or design by hand, combining my love for fashion and surface design with painting. This became an incredible experience learning how to manage school, work, and my own business. I am forever grateful to the Lite Foot company for allowing me to sell these pieces in store alongside an online presence, as well as giving me the opportunity to sell at local Savannah markets. As well as One For The Road, for also allowing me to participate in pop-ups on the property in the Starland area.
With my time at SCAD, I was pushed into uncomfortable spaces and endured sleepless nights in order to create an art practice filled with intention and a purpose of challenging the audience’s perspective. Asking those who encounter my work to look up, look out, and look within. Deep-rooted empathy fuels my artistic practice through all mediums, where I navigate the evolving questions of human intimacy, individuality, and shared experience.
I am now entering the world as an emerging artist, and in my first year out of school, I have had the privilege of being part of 4 incredible shows and having works purchased by the Savannah College of Art and Design’s permanent collection. Three of the shows have been in Nashville, with a fourth approaching soon, where I have begun my professional creative career, with my work being showcased alongside incredible Nashville creatives. Another show I was honored to be a part of: a piece from my senior body of work was selected for the Sylvia L. Rosen Craft Art Biennial at the Burchfield Penney Art Center in Buffalo, New York. To see my work in a Museum setting amongst vetted artists was a privilege and a longtime dream of mine, and was truly a surreal experience.
I now continue to work towards building my artistic portfolio by continuing my art practice every day while also receiving commission requests. I aim to build my skills and lean into a playful spirit, both as an artist and designer, as I progress through my creative career.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
In my work, I aim to capture the essence of the human spirit. Through portraiture, figuration, and abstraction, I react to what I curiously observe, record, and reshape through my mind’s eye. Allowing my dreams to also be a guide to what I create and how I create. I always begin with studying connections around me with curiosity and sketchbook in hand, these sketches later becoming a part of something larger. I combine materials such as canvas, fabric, denim, bleach, acrylic paint, and oil paint, manipulating these elements through cutting, sewing, and pinning to create layered compositions that reflect the emotional residues of human experiences, having impressions of individual essence. I offer my perspective on the self and others, while emphasizing the importance of wonder in both art and design.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
I am constantly learning and unlearning as a maker and creative. I am unlearning being caught in a loop of perfectionism or pre-planning, while learning what creative freedom looks like for myself. I experienced this firsthand with my senior thesis at SCAD. The work I was creating in my senior year felt like it had more pressure on the outcome in terms of creation than anything I had ever made. It would be my introduction to the world as an artist after leaving school and building a foundation of ideas moving forward. I struggled with this pressure to start, but it was the moment I just allowed myself to be in front of the canvas when a new language was born. I began stacking layers of watered-down paint and transparent and abstracted depictions of my observations and sketches to create a larger abstraction of essence, allowing for the work to be a puzzle to pull apart and put back together. An initial large abstract piece informed any work I made afterwards, which was a start, but I still felt stuck. I then started creating paintings with this same technique in terms of application in mind, but began overthinking their compositions. I was pushed by my mentor and perspective to get past the control I was trying to have over my paintings by literally cutting them into pieces. This then led me to experiment with cutting holes in the works and playing with tension in order to suspend my work, taking it off the wall entirely. This was both terrifying and invigorating. But this one decision changed my practice forever. This is when sewing became an integral part of my practice and the idea of breaking things apart to bring them back together. This now became a way I could better translate my ideas that the people we encounter shape us into who we are, as we hold on to memories as pieces of those we love or loved. These are ideas that I continue to explore as I observe the world as an artist. Some of my best works have been born without a set plan, but by allowing myself to stand in front of material and let it guide me. I can be conscious of this many times, but still struggle to be, especially in a transitional period in life or within my work. But it’s impossible to force true expression because it will come out controlled and with a lack of spirit. The spirit can only be present when there is a concentrated but free spirit within, craving to allow new things to show up. To be authentically aligned with my goals and perspective as an artist, keeping in mind that moments shape us, I must allow the current moment to guide and shape me just as the ones in the past have. I have found that curiosity and play are my breakout of the trap that is perfectionism, to allow for expression that is true and authentic.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.makenzielander.com/
- Instagram: mknzpaint
- Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/in/makenzie-lander
