Emily Mackenzie

King Robert the Bruce - Stirling Castle

Robert the Bruce is a renowned historical figure who led Scotland during the First war of Scottish Independence against England. This artwork is based on a photograph my father took during my visit in Scotland. I wanted to showcase this work because it's a learning piece exploring different mediums, style and paper. I believe artists often don't showcase work that is more process based out of the pressure of showcasing only their best. Everything in a gallery is seemingly established, where artists have distinguished styles, mediums and overlapping conceptual themes. I've always felt discouraged to showcase work like this, but it's where I'm at at as a beginning artist. I have yet to go beyond representation and find concepts I want to focus on. Like this artwork, I'm a work in progress myself.

Artist biography

I was born and raised and Calgary coming from a Scottish and Chinese ancestry, Art and handiwork has always been in my bloodline. The biggest influence for my art practice is my family, both my father and grandfather were artists and I was always encouraged to create something. As a child I loved bragging about my dad working as an animator in the 1980s on Ducktales and Care Bears. So, I would personally say I had an awesome childhood being surrounded by cartoons and animation and had an unlimited supply of handmade colouring books from his drawings. On my mother’s side my grandmother was a self-made seamstress and quite resourceful coming from a lower economic class while also being racialized as a Chinese immigrant to Canada. Her crafty work always ceased to amaze me, and she taught me at an early age of seeing everything differently, such as reusing and repurposing common day items.

Artist Statement

Representational art has always been what I’m most familiar with drawing. My artwork, King Robert the Bruce- Stirling Castle is an experimental piece and showcases my struggle to pull away from accurate colours for example and cutting the artwork in an unsymmetrical way. I’ve always very been an uptight artist and felt the pressures of being a “chip of the old block”. I chose to represent this artwork as it’s a process-based artwork, in other words it’s not an established direction or art style that I am attached to, because I consider myself also a work in progress and wanted people to know that you don’t have to be in an identified art niche right away or be advant garde.

How did you start your art practice?

My sassy answer is: I started my art practice very early on since the day I picked up a Crayola marker and drew on the wall much to the chagrin of my parents. Generally speaking though, I have yet to discover my stylistic, conceptual themes that I wish to explore. I am mostly self-taught exploring various drawing and painting mediums. Academic coursework is allowing me to push past my comfort zone and biases from my personal history. I wish to teach and encourage others who feel like amateur artists like me or don't feel they belong in an exhibition.