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Jemila MacEwan is known for their intimately interwoven earthworks, created through slow acts of physical endurance and meditation. MacEwan cultivates kinships with landscapes and their communities of indwellers, regarding them as true collaborators who carry their own valid subjectivities, histories, and messages. MacEwan's work is empathetic to the psychological pressure of trying to reach into the past to regain control of a future fraught with uncertainty.
MacEwan has performed and exhibited extensively internationally including at; ARoS Museum (Denmark), The Australian Consulate-General (NYC), Pioneer Works (NYC), The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts (NYC), NYCXDESIGN (USA), Skaftfell Center for Visual Art (Iceland) and Castlemaine State Festival (Australia). In 2022, MacEwan was awarded the NYSCA/NYFA Fellowship in Architecture/Environmental Structures/Design, The BigCi Environmental Art Award and was invited by TEDxBoston to give a presentation as a Planetary Fellow. They have been invited to attend many residencies notably; Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (USA), BANFF Center (Canada), NARS Foundation (NYC), and Ox-Bow School of Painting (MI). Their work has been published in Art in America, Boston Globe, SFMoMA Open Space, MONDO Arc and Artist Profile Magazine. MacEwan has been generously supported by Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Australia Council for the Arts, The New York Foundation for the Arts, The New York State Council on the Arts, The Dame Joan Sutherland Fund, The Ian Potter Cultural Council and is a recipient of The Marten Bequest Traveling Scholarship.
MacEwan has performed and exhibited extensively internationally including at; ARoS Museum (Denmark), The Australian Consulate-General (NYC), Pioneer Works (NYC), The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts (NYC), NYCXDESIGN (USA), Skaftfell Center for Visual Art (Iceland) and Castlemaine State Festival (Australia). In 2022, MacEwan was awarded the NYSCA/NYFA Fellowship in Architecture/Environmental Structures/Design, The BigCi Environmental Art Award and was invited by TEDxBoston to give a presentation as a Planetary Fellow. They have been invited to attend many residencies notably; Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (USA), BANFF Center (Canada), NARS Foundation (NYC), and Ox-Bow School of Painting (MI). Their work has been published in Art in America, Boston Globe, SFMoMA Open Space, MONDO Arc and Artist Profile Magazine. MacEwan has been generously supported by Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Australia Council for the Arts, The New York Foundation for the Arts, The New York State Council on the Arts, The Dame Joan Sutherland Fund, The Ian Potter Cultural Council and is a recipient of The Marten Bequest Traveling Scholarship.
Published on March 19th, 2023. Artist responses collected in months previous.
What are you fascinated with right now?
My creative practice and sense of self have been transforming a lot this year and it has been fascinating to observe how collaboration with other artists has been a big catalyst for this. I am in awe of how creative surrender to others allows the work to unfold around me in ways that are so far beyond what I could imagine as a solo creator. To a degree, my own creative identity has become unraveled by this process and is now so entwined with other’s creative universes that I am having to take some time to reorient myself within this unexpected terrain. Processes of creative renewal can be exhilarating but also frightening at the same time. I am finding that I need some time in focused solitude to deepen, integrate, expand into and accept these changes –– both the things lost and the things granted in the process.
What advice would you give your younger artist self?
Remember to enjoy the process. Art doesn’t pay well enough for it to make you miserable, if you love the work it shows up in the process and the final work. It’s not always fun but if you don’t love the idea at the core of what you are making you should stop, reassess and make a shift.
When all feels lost, surrender, abandon control and let the creative reveal the way.
Always listen to your instincts. Avoid rationalizing decisions that seem good when your instincts are telling you to run. Conversely, if your rational mind says an idea is foolish but you continually find yourself drawn to it, make space to follow the impulses of your curiosity.
Cultivate meaningful connections to the world everyday and I believe you will never experience creative block. Our interconnectedness is the wellspring from which creativity comes to all things.
Focus. Notice when you are leaking out or when things are leaking in that are distracting from your focus. Be permeable, but take some time each day to practice keeping your personal axis in alignment.
What are your tools for creative resilience these days? Do you have any methods to stay positive when life becomes difficult and perhaps when you have limited time to create?
Staying connected to your close art friends is so important for resilience. Look after them and ask them for help. Tell them when you are not ok, listen to them when they are not ok. Be kind, patient and listen generously. Care is how we transform the world.
As for time, it always feels limited. Even if you have the good fortune of being able to make art all the time it still feels limited. But more than time, we are limited by our own capacity for output. It’s so important to rest and be patient even if you are in a hurry. I’m currently experiencing burnout and exhaustion from going hard for months on end. It has left me mentally unwell and physically depleted and now I just have to stop and be patient while my body and mind repair. I wonder if I could have avoided this with a more steady and sustainable approach to making or if this is just how I am as an artist. To stay creatively nourished I’m focusing on making small undemanding creative collaborations with my friends.
What is your dreamy vision for your creative career and art practice three years from now?
Just to be surrounded by all of my most incredible and inspiring collaborators, making radically experimental, weird and ambitious works. I am transforming so much as an artist that I’m surrendering to the ride to find out who and what I am going to be. I believe that living an art-life should be holistically supportive and sustainable, this means allowing for messiness. We should allow all parts of our lives to integrate into our art-lives. Family, friends, playtime, worktime, education –– I think they all should be integrated and intertwined for art to be physically and emotionally sustainable. I’m building toward that.
How are you being kind to yourself as you look towards realizing your vision for your art career?
The older I get the more I observe the way we inhabit full spectrums of being and I think verbalizing that is a good way to free oneself from being so focused on the public image we project. So here are my top 5 ways I am not being kind to myself and my top 5 ways I am being kind to myself.
Not kind:
Holding absolutely everything I do to my highest standard.
Expecting myself to enjoy every part of being an artist.
Judging my thoughts and actions harshly leading to shame.
Not giving myself any days off even when I am too exhausted to keep going.
Expecting myself to emotionally recover from any setback immediately.
Kind
Dedicating part of my daily meditation to honoring the person I was that day and thanking them for doing their best.
Giving myself time and freedom to pursue creative projects that are not career or clout focused.
Seeking help and making sure I have enough support for big projects when I need it.
Admitting to myself that I am not well and creating safe boundaries for my recovery.
Being patient.
What are you fascinated with right now?
My creative practice and sense of self have been transforming a lot this year and it has been fascinating to observe how collaboration with other artists has been a big catalyst for this. I am in awe of how creative surrender to others allows the work to unfold around me in ways that are so far beyond what I could imagine as a solo creator. To a degree, my own creative identity has become unraveled by this process and is now so entwined with other’s creative universes that I am having to take some time to reorient myself within this unexpected terrain. Processes of creative renewal can be exhilarating but also frightening at the same time. I am finding that I need some time in focused solitude to deepen, integrate, expand into and accept these changes –– both the things lost and the things granted in the process.
What advice would you give your younger artist self?
Remember to enjoy the process. Art doesn’t pay well enough for it to make you miserable, if you love the work it shows up in the process and the final work. It’s not always fun but if you don’t love the idea at the core of what you are making you should stop, reassess and make a shift.
When all feels lost, surrender, abandon control and let the creative reveal the way.
Always listen to your instincts. Avoid rationalizing decisions that seem good when your instincts are telling you to run. Conversely, if your rational mind says an idea is foolish but you continually find yourself drawn to it, make space to follow the impulses of your curiosity.
Cultivate meaningful connections to the world everyday and I believe you will never experience creative block. Our interconnectedness is the wellspring from which creativity comes to all things.
Focus. Notice when you are leaking out or when things are leaking in that are distracting from your focus. Be permeable, but take some time each day to practice keeping your personal axis in alignment.
What are your tools for creative resilience these days? Do you have any methods to stay positive when life becomes difficult and perhaps when you have limited time to create?
Staying connected to your close art friends is so important for resilience. Look after them and ask them for help. Tell them when you are not ok, listen to them when they are not ok. Be kind, patient and listen generously. Care is how we transform the world.
As for time, it always feels limited. Even if you have the good fortune of being able to make art all the time it still feels limited. But more than time, we are limited by our own capacity for output. It’s so important to rest and be patient even if you are in a hurry. I’m currently experiencing burnout and exhaustion from going hard for months on end. It has left me mentally unwell and physically depleted and now I just have to stop and be patient while my body and mind repair. I wonder if I could have avoided this with a more steady and sustainable approach to making or if this is just how I am as an artist. To stay creatively nourished I’m focusing on making small undemanding creative collaborations with my friends.
What is your dreamy vision for your creative career and art practice three years from now?
Just to be surrounded by all of my most incredible and inspiring collaborators, making radically experimental, weird and ambitious works. I am transforming so much as an artist that I’m surrendering to the ride to find out who and what I am going to be. I believe that living an art-life should be holistically supportive and sustainable, this means allowing for messiness. We should allow all parts of our lives to integrate into our art-lives. Family, friends, playtime, worktime, education –– I think they all should be integrated and intertwined for art to be physically and emotionally sustainable. I’m building toward that.
How are you being kind to yourself as you look towards realizing your vision for your art career?
The older I get the more I observe the way we inhabit full spectrums of being and I think verbalizing that is a good way to free oneself from being so focused on the public image we project. So here are my top 5 ways I am not being kind to myself and my top 5 ways I am being kind to myself.
Not kind:
Holding absolutely everything I do to my highest standard.
Expecting myself to enjoy every part of being an artist.
Judging my thoughts and actions harshly leading to shame.
Not giving myself any days off even when I am too exhausted to keep going.
Expecting myself to emotionally recover from any setback immediately.
Kind
Dedicating part of my daily meditation to honoring the person I was that day and thanking them for doing their best.
Giving myself time and freedom to pursue creative projects that are not career or clout focused.
Seeking help and making sure I have enough support for big projects when I need it.
Admitting to myself that I am not well and creating safe boundaries for my recovery.
Being patient.
Find Jemila MacEwan on Instagram
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