(via Ali Naschke-Messing | In The Make | Studio visits with West Coast artists)

The photographer Kena Mackenna  has made of her creative practice telling stories about other upcoming artists in the West Coast. She visits her creative studios, photographs them and shares their stories in her blog. 

This has inspired me to start telling stories of the work of friends.

Social ‘artists’ you might call some of them. I want to feature short interviews or ‘vignettes' about people that have continuously inspired and influenced me. I want to create an interactive newsletter / multi-sensory site that shows their inputs (like direct links to the books they'r reading, museums they're visiting, music they're listening to, audio to their interviews…) Instead of just a simple 'snapshot' of their face, it's a portal to their 'being’. 

I was particularly moved by the interview of the artist Ali Naschke Messing 

  

"I work with light and reflection to talk about perception and presence, to illuminate what is always there but is not necessarily obviously visible. Being present in the making and hopefully creating environments and work for others to be present in.

A physical space is really important to me, as I am such a tactile artist. I need to be in space to understand what it is I am making. I actually need to see ideas in 3D before I can understand them. I am not a realistic drawer, and I don’t render anything on the computer, so a lot of the work comes from hand exploration.

 

Seeing a shadow of threads on the wall inspired the question: “What is the least I can do? What is the most subtle action?” That moment moved me further in my work than all of grad school. And, I didn’t start making work with light until I moved into a new studio that had amazing afternoon eastern exposure and showed me what was possible with simple materials to create reflection. Light entered the work on its’ own.”

Let her move you in appreciation of ‘being in art’ and ‘becoming art’ yourself.