In this new series, we ask questions of working artists around Southeast Alaska. To suggest an artist, email maryc.martin@capweek.com.
CCW: Do you have any particular creative routines or habits — favorite spaces to work, times of day, materials you use, music you listen to, etc.?
MacNaughton: I love my magical little studio, hidden in the back of the parking lot on the corner of Front and Main. In 2012 I opened my business Sketch, so I’ve been a full-time teaching and exhibiting artist for four years now. I work primarily in charcoal and oil paint, but I also like creating installation pieces and my studio is home to my junk collections: eyeglasses, zippers, inner tubes, onion skins, broken piano parts and other essential things I just might need someday. I do my ‘clean work’ in the morning, like charcoal drawing on paper, or painting on t-shirts, and I switch to oil painting in the afternoon. Once I start oil painting I don’t touch things that might get ruined by a spot of oil. Because I work in a mix of mediums (and because I collect so much eclectic junk), I’m very organized, or else my studio would be a nightmare. But when I find myself wandering around and over-organizing, I’ve figured out that I’m unconsciously procrastinating… maybe I’m nervous about starting a new project, or I’m not sure where to go with a piece. Music helps anchor me. I listen to a mix of indie rock, jazz, classical, hip hop, electronic. A perfect playlist might be Tom Waits, Vivaldi, Belly, Typical Cats, Nirvana, Odesza, John Coltrane, Ibeyi, Thievery Corporation. I find I work in time to the music, so I like a mix up of fast and slow.
CCW: How much drawing/painting/whatever art form applies do you usually get done in a one-day period?
MacNaughton: I spend at least 20-40 hours a week making art; the rest of my time is spent teaching classes in my studio or in the community. I figure if I create for a minimum of 20 hours a week, that’s 1000 hours a year, and after 10 years I’ll have the 10,000 hours of practice. It’s my own master’s degree program.
CCW: How do you balance your creative life with your day job?
MacNaughton: For years I tried to balance work, family and making art, and I didn’t succeed in making much art of my own. After 25 years of social service, non-profit work in domestic violence prevention, disability advocacy and arts administration, I realized that I didn’t have much retirement saved. A few years ago, when I was helping to start the Canvas, an older woman came into the gallery and looked around sadly, saying she had always planned to take up pottery when she retired, but her hands were too arthritic now. That had an impact on me, and I decided to wrap what I hoped to do in retirement (making art) into my current working life; so my day job IS my creative life now.
CCW: What do you find particularly inspiring?
MacNaughton: Being a mom gave me the excuse to do lots of art with my kids when they were little. I learned a tremendous amount from preschool teachers Nancy Lehnhart and Rhonda Gardinier about being a teacher and a creative person at the Juneau Co-op Preschool. From my role as preschool parent, I sort of stumbled into teaching art at Harborview for a couple of years, where I had 350 enthusiastic little students every week inspiring me with their wild creativity. I was also lucky to work with adults who experience disabilities at the Canvas, as well as with a wide variety of artists whom I hired to teach there. One friend in particular had an impact on me: Nicole Bauberger from Whitehorse loaded up a truck with art materials and just headed out into the world to be an artist, and her innovative spirit still inspires me. I’ve modeled my work ethic after her bold example.
CCW: What are you working on now, and when do you hope to finish it?
MacNaughton: I just finished a series of oil paintings inspired by Hawaiian landscapes, which was a way to take an economical vacation in my studio this winter. I’m working on a series of tiny paintings of Juneau landscapes right now, that I’m hoping tourists and locals alike will find make great gifts and souvenirs. I’m also painting t-shirts, which is a fun and relaxing project. They crack me up actually: I’ve been painting birds, ants carrying donuts and I’m thinking of starting a squirrel series. I like to balance whimsical projects with more serious projects, and I’m planning to begin a new body of work exploring aging, with an exhibit goal of October. In the meantime, I’m working with a team of kids to create a 15’x36’ backdrop for Juneau Dance Theatre’s production of the Nutcracker; I’m helping Thunder Mountain High School make a giant dragon for their upcoming production of Shrek; and I’m collaborating with two poets to make paintings inspired by their poems for Broadsides, a fundraiser for KTOO.
CCW: What advice have you heard (either directly, from someone you know, or indirectly, from reading or otherwise learning about another artist) that¹s been beneficial to you? Separately, do you have any advice for other artists?
MacNaughton: Every child loves art, until they learn from adults not to. I think I was afraid to call myself an artist for a long time, because it seemed pretentious of me to think I was good enough to label myself as one. After encouraging children to think outside the box and explore different mediums, I finally started taking my own advice to heart, and of course I’m an artist, because I love making art. Adults who say they aren’t artistic are stifling all of the youth around them, sending the message that we ‘are’ or we ‘aren’t’, so don’t say you aren’t artistic!
