ALEXINE MCLEOD

Alexine McLeod Composition With Projection XV 2017

Alexine McLeod graduated from Emily Carr in 2016, and is currently represented by Monte Clarke Gallery in Vancouver. This past year, she was a finalist for the CASV artist prize and has been in a number of shows across the country including Vancouver, Saskatchewan, and Toronto. She was recently accepted into the MFA program at the University of Guelph starting this fall.  

From across some ocean I was able to get Alexine on the phone...after a huge storm…and after a tsunami warning…and whatever else happened that week…I was able to ask her a few questions...

KL: So Alexine, where did you grow up?

AM: I grew up in Vancouver actually, so I lived here up until I was 18.  Right after graduating I did a little visual arts diploma program in Victoria, and I spent some time over there. I really enjoyed spending time there for a couple of years and made some good friends. When I was finished the program at Camosun College I came back here [to Vancouver] and did a little bit more schooling while working a bunch of odd jobs, then finished my education to this point at Emily Carr.

KL: So you’ve always been by the Beach!

AM: Yeah, I’ve been close to the water pretty much my whole childhood, and I guess in my adult life I’ve been further from the water, and haven’t necessarily had as much exposure to it. That’s something I realized recently that I’m missing. In the last few years I find myself gravitating towards it again.

KL: Did you always find that you were a creative person when you were young?

AM: Yeah, I was definitely one of those kids that was always drawing no matter where I went, I would find the markers and felt pens and sit down to do some drawings whether I was with friends or not…I was that kid for sure.

Alexine McLeod Composition with Projection IX 2016

KL: Can you describe the first piece of art you remember making, or something that was really memorable that you were very proud of?

AM: Uhm…ok there’s actually two that come to mind. One of them is pretty funny- I think I must have been as young as three…ahh. The two I can remember are….
I drew a parrot and I also drew a toilet.
They were things that really impressed my parents but I couldn’t understand why…. they were just super simple drawings of those things- but I think it was to do with the perspective when It came to the toilet drawing…because they were like, really impressed by the way I “got” the perspective.

KL: Hahaha! Why do you think you wanted to draw a toilet?

AM: I don’t know, I think I was just interested in drawing things around me at home… and I guess at three you are, you know- obsessed with the toilet…  [laughs].

KL: Hahah!  oh yeah at three that would be a big thing.

AM: And then drawing the parrot was another one where I drew the parrot in profile- and it was a quick drawing with felt pen…it had a real likeness to it and I remember cutting it out and putting it on the fridge. I remember seeing the parrot on the fridge for a very long time after that.

KL: So good!

Alexine McLeod Composition with Projection XIX 2017

KL: So, it’s my understanding you still work with kids sometimes- do you think it influences your practice at all…hanging out with these mini-people?

AM: Yeah, actually…. I feel like the cool thing about being around kids is that they are totally uninhibited, and they just experience the world in a really pure way. So, it’s definitely inspiring being around kids because the way they see things is always so fresh. They don’t see things from a place of judgement or comparison based on past experience. There’s that element of freshness, and newness, and those two things are aspects I’m super interested in exploring in relation to the creative process too.

KL: Can you tell me a little bit about your materials?  It appears that some of these are found objects, how do you choose or find these objects?

AM:  I would say most of the time I just find them on the street - often on the way to the studio or when I’m walking in the neighbourhood of my studio… which happens to be down some alleyways and side roads. Sometimes it could be near somebody’s back yard, or junk that they have tossed aside and don’t want anymore. Yeah, that’s usually where I find stuff. Quite often I find things on the side of the road or sidewalk. I’ve even found things as I’ve been crossing the street - and, you know… just casually peeled them off the ground mid-crossing.

KL: Have you ever been heartbroken you’ve had to leave something?

AM: Yeah, I think that happens relatively often -  if something is really logistically challenging to transport, and I’m not close to my studio, I likely won’t pick it up. But often the heartbreak is as fleeting as the initial attraction anyway so those things go forgotten quickly anyway.

Often, I’ll have a moment with an object and say something like… “what are you?” and kind of have a talk with it. In some cases, I have grabbed some challenging things and shimmied them onto the bus…and tried to figure out a way to act casual when other people are trying to figure out what the heck I’m holding onto.

KL: I was going to ask if you ever got into any embarrassing situations with things that you were carrying…but maybe just the bus?

AM: Ahh, I don’t think so… I think I only try to… uhm.. I think the best trick is to just carry things with confidence so people don’t even realize the strangeness of it all. Yeah, act natural…

KL: That’s a good trick.

Composition with Projection and Spotlight I Detail

KL: I find that the more joyful and playful elements in your work come as a surprise because they arent always initially visible...can you talk a little bit about the playful aspects of your work?

AM:  Well I think the act of making, and combining things is a pretty playful act, and so that perhaps is something that translates- probably through movement- but then in some cases I choose objects with actual associations to childhood play… and to be honest, I don’t think I intentionally incorporate those things-  I gravitate towards certain objects.. and yeah, perhaps this playful aspect just comes through based on how they are arranged.

KL: Yeah, it’s not always the objects that have that initial implication either- but the way you arrange them has that.

AM: Yeah, I’m always consciously trying to create as much movement as possible through visual arrangement… how certain things can appear to have potential movement in them based on placement and angles, even though they are actually still.

Alexine McLeod XVII 2017 Detail

Alexine McLeod CWP XVII 2017

KL: I like that with the slowly moving gradient projection too… it’s kind of a reminder that all the objects are moving from within- like that they are particles or maybe just visually bouncing off of each other.

AM: Yeah, I think that having the light slowly shift actually comes back to this thing about the ocean….and maybe some influences that it may have on the work… or I guess growing up near bodies of water.  I’m starting to think more, and more, about even the experience of being on a boat. I was observing the light on the ferry coming from the island to Vancouver over the summer… how shadows kind of dance around when you’re on a boat, because obviously the whole boat is rocking and I like that idea that this subtle movement is constantly shifting or swaying… and even though that wasn’t an original intention with the colour shifting light- there is a relationship to the movement of water.

…And then also the transparency of light and the transparency of water and thinking about the similarities between water and light

KL: It’s nice how that light just reflects forever when the sun is setting and it just seems like the ocean and water just reflect and blend into one thing

Alexine McLeod Composition with Projection XIX Detail

KL: So, there’s a way that I’m selfish when I’m looking at a work, and I always want repetition to have some poetic rhythm or something- but in your work I feel like….you know that meme of that woman with calculations…and there’s a triangle and it’s from a movie or something…

AM: I don’t know if I know it-I’m trying to think of it… (laughs)

KL: Ok haha Yeah, I feel like I’m trying to find all the repetition of circles, and shapes, repeating within a work. There will be a repeating circle or shadow, or one material will mimic another…or the shadow of the object will become a copy of itself.

Can you talk more about that aspect of repetition? Is it more calculated and planned or more an intuitive way to work?

AM: Yeah, well coming back to this- it isn’t something I’m consciously aware of - but coming back to water… thinking about the reflectivity, and the idea of a shadow being a reflection. The reflectivity of the shadow is one way of looking at that repetition.
I also think that there is a certain ability for repetition to create a pace, or a cadence that slows down the viewing process… and suddenly you become engaged in meditating on the many within the one thing. So, whether that is …let’s say the lines of the blinds, or the spirals on a rope- things like that- where suddenly you’re able to slow down when you approach the objects.

KL: I was curious about the projection itself, and how this frame implicates the viewer as well. Does it interest you at all the way the projection restricts the viewer… or do you feel that it restricts their walk to the work?

Alexine McLeod CWP XXI 2017

AM: I think on the one hand the projection plays a role of providing focus and perhaps even a limitation, but on the other hand… say if an object exits the frame of light- those limitations are broken...so I’m interested in the play of both creating limitations and also breaking them.

KL: So, if there were no parameters… and you had unlimited money…and you had to make a work to send to outer space, orrrrrrr,  maybe out to sea what would it be?

AM: Wooooah! Uhmm what that would be hard.

It’s funny because I think that your suggestions of space, or the sea, are like my ideal locations anyways (laughs)... so perhaps if I could make a work that could go to both, it would have to be contained within a ship, or a boat…so it could float or fly. I don’t think it would need to be very big either, just big enough to hold a few people or very comfortably hold one person or two.

KL: So, the viewers would be in the ship…you wouldn’t hope it to find anyone by surprise?

AM: I like the idea of somebody sailing away in it - to go from the shore and travel around with the work…and experience it that way. I would want there to be lots of cut-outs and a lot of play with natural light. I imagine using industrial fabrics and even white tarps with cut-outs to create lighting effects… suspended mobiles would be cool too!

KL: Oh weird-  I was picturing mobiles that whole time.

AM: Haha, and I think this ship could very well have some really great coloured spotlights that shift and of course form relationships with the natural light from outer space… or wherever you would be traveling to on your journey!

KL: Haha- cool well keep me posted I would love to go. I think I’ll take the sea option myself. 

Alexine McLeod Composition with Projection XIV 2017

Thanks for talking with me Alexine, and I look forward to seeing more of your work in the coming year!

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Check out more of Alexine's work at ALEXINEMCLEOD.COM and follow her on instagram @allymmcleod

Lindsay Wells




Lindsay Wells is an Alberta child. She graduated from ACAD with honours, has had a host of shows under her belt in Calgary, and is currently living on the soggy, coast of BC. I got Lindsay on the phone as she sat in her living-room, in her underwear, sewing.

 As the late afternoon light faded...over the hummm of the sewing machine...I was able to ask her a few questions... 

KL : So you are currently living in Tofino?

LW: Yeah, I’m currently living in Tofino. We’ll see how long that lasts.

KL: Ha ha, cool - do you think you’re here seasonally, or you’re here for a chunk of time?


LW:  A chunk of time depending on how long I can keep my studio space and housing. 

Kl: Mmhmm yeah housings an issue out there! what kind of studio space do you have set up right now? 



LW: I had a spot in a garage, which was perfect and then the house sold so I had to move out of it… and then I was working on my deck. It didn’t rain much this week so that’s been nice. I’m hoping I can move back to the garage someday. 

KL: Yeah yah! It’s too bad there not more space for the mole people all working in basements there.

So, do you find it’s easy to meet other artists and to see their work there? It seems like everything is pretty elusive there-and it could be hard to find that community of people that are making interesting work or any work at all. Do you find it’s easy to track people down or run into people? 

LW: Uhmmm you kind of have to look for it, but it’s a small town so with some effort you can find stuff going on. The music scene has been really great locally and there’ve been lots of great bands from out of town coming through so I feel like the next step would be the visual arts enlightenment haha!

KL: Haha visual enlightenment! Yeah, the music scene is a really cool thing evolving there right now! (s/o to Roy's Bag for their work this past year to bring us all those shows, and fresh faces, and sounds.)

LW: And so, I feel like it’s only a matter of time and with the right space that there could be some cool art things happening too. 

KL: Yeah, it’s hard when there’s so many good things going on there like surfing--it kind of kills time but in the best way..and there’s so many young people with energy and ……I sound like I'm 90!


LW: Hahah we both do

KL: I hear you sewing right now, what else are you working on- art wise?

LW: I’m going away for the holidays...so I just wrapped up a couple paintings, and I am working on a video series right now, so when I’m away I can take my computer and work on that.  And then, when I get home I’m going to set up the studio, hopefully, so I can do some more painting!



KL: That sounds great! look forward to seeing those. 

KL: So, through knowing your work a little bit, I was joking about you being sort-of a renaissance woman – I mean you are sewing, you’re making video work, you’re making sculptures, you’re writing, you’re painting.
Do you feel like these come from the same space, or inspiration, or is it you sort-of have a different narrator or character for each discipline? Do you feel like they overlap a bit? 

LW: Mmmm I do I think they overlap- it’s a mixture. They all have their own things that they are trying to communicate. I think that the end results of each medium has the same tone and presence but the language being used is inherently different from when I’m working say in a video as compared to a painting. When I’m looking at my own art I’m a lot more critical than when somebody else is looking at it.



I don’t like to be bogged down by one medium, having limitations of any sort limits me in my ideas so much. 

KL:   It seems like in your work there’s an element of the mundane, but it’s really just celebrating that

moment….
it’s like giving the mundane its 15 minuets but especially in your video work with the music-there is this calmness, and rhythm to it. It’s really celebrating those mellow odd moments.

So, that was just a monologue not a question…so uhhh what do you think about that? 

LW: Hahaha. No that is basically it… if I could just write down what you just said-that is everything I make. I enjoy looking at all the small stuff that is happening around me and making it bigger. 

KL: Yeah, it's super nice - I really like that with your video work.

KL:  So If your work was a music genre where do you think it would fit? 

LW: Uhmm OK- so I would love to be a mixture of tradition Japanese Zen garden with…with….uhm Tom Waits.

KL: Oh, I could see that! That would be awesome

Who do you think would open for you?

LW: Oh gosh, I would probably get…. I think maybe it would be great to have either a punk band to get everyone riled up, and then that hard clash for when I get up Zen time, and they would be like ‘What’s going on? We want the punk band back!” lol

Or say like Enya, because that’s kinda funny...

But everyone would be asleep by the end of the night so….Yeah, maybe not her.

KL: Hahaha I'm THERE!

KL: So, I also wanted to ask you not who you’re inspired by right now, or what work you’re looking at right now-  but who’s work are you really jealous of right now? Like you wish ‘Damn I wish I made that!’

LW: Oh, that’s a good question.
Uhmm, who have I been looking at recently? There’s this one guy I’ve been looking at on Instagram because that’s my only mode of looking at art right now. This guy just paints a bunch of naked people having sex all the time.

K gimme one sec… I’ll find his name….but I am jealous of him because they are so simple and that is so great! 

ok his names is AJ Kats. 



KL: Oh nice, I’ll have to look him up !



LW: And basically everyone else in the art world who’s doing something I’m like-cool you’re making a living at this eh? 

KL: Yeah! Almost there....!

KL: Another thing I'm curious about in your work is your use of symbols- can you tell me a little bit about these cats and figures in your work?

LW: I love symbols in everything. I don’t know why I keep having this cat figure. I do love cats but I don’t want to be that cat girl. Anyways, it’s just meant to embody mischief and a creepy ambiguous portal. 

KL: Yeah those are some mischievous kitties- they really fit that trickster role

KL: Can you describe your process in painting a little bit?

LW: My process is up for refinement. I really would love to be that person that goes into something with a plan and sticks to it. But it seems as though my process is to spend a lot of time with the canvas and then to paint on it and keep painting and like it then hate it then all of a sudden I black out and hopefully I’ve done something great! I’m going to keep trying to plan….

KL: Hahah no! I'm a firm believer in that struggle from ditching the plan halfway through! 

KL: It was great to hear from you before the holiday here...maybe we will touch base with you and your newwork in the new year?! And good luck with the dress! 

LW: Yeah thank you! I think I’ve ruined the dress. Can’t wait to see you when I see you!

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Check out more of Lindsays work at Lindsaylindsaylindsay & follow her on instagram @ratchetwells