Three Questions to Patricia Cain
In your latest group of works there’s a strong sense of growth and the architecture of nature. How would you describe the energy in your compositions?
It’s good to be as close to nature as possible, and I think I’m part of the lineage of artists who have become more intimately connected to nature through observation and attention. I’m not making to replicate, but to engage in a process. So the energy in the work is formed through the dynamic process between what I’m observing and making - perhaps documenting my evolving relationship with nature, and this circular process feels like it makes itself. And whilst it’s possible to talk about the subject matter or form of what any particular piece of work ‘is about’ (for example, you’ve mentioned the sense of growth and architecture of nature), for me, my work is more the consequence or evidence of the energy of this evolving dynamic process, and this doesn’t end with the finishing of one particular piece of work.
You’ve suggested that the most important question for a maker is what they ‘come to know about the world through making an artwork.’ What has this latest trajectory revealed?
My personal experience of ‘coming to know’ through making work, is that it is both gradual and often physically tied up with the processes I mention above. So coming to know, or becoming aware - which is a matter of consciousness - often happens because as artists, we’re perhaps able to transform our physical experiences of the process.
My self-awareness grows because through art, I’m able to realise connections between my own experiences and the world at large. Processes such as letting go or being connected subconsciously manifest themselves in my work. So coming to know depends on developing an internal life of
You’ve described ‘nature as a gateway to the internal mind,’ how does this shape the way you work in mixed media?
becoming aware through making work, and I sense that awareness can become apparent through all disciplines, not just art. My current work has increased my awareness of allowing or enabling myself to become more facilitated without blocking or self-judgement - so you could say that making work is my framework for better locating my authentic self. I could go further in a bigger picture way, by perhaps recognising that the rather devotional aspect of making that I’ve consciously committed to, has a sense of engaging in my larger purpose, and viz. a viz. the world at large, this is how I am meant to contribute. Ten Birds | coloured pencil |
For me, choices about media, space, colour and scale are closely connected with impressions through senses, and involve sensitivity, attunement, intuition and a kind of think-feel. They are a nuanced and delicate aspect of openness I seek to inhabit.
I think mixed media offers something like a spectrum in the dynamic between known and unknown. Going into the unknown by experimenting with media with which you have little familiarity or mixing media in unfamiliar ways, creates new connections, interruptions, challenges, or interjections which can form chances for expansion. In this sense, mixing media is like a vocabulary from which to chose, and those decisions and choices are also very much part of the dynamic.