Pandemic Portrait: Tanea Hynes

Michelle MacKinnon's Pandemic Portraits is an ongoing series of paintings that celebrates seemingly small, yet personally significant, accomplishments in a time when the question of "what constitutes productivity" has been heavily and weightily present.

The instructor of visual art in Grenfell's School of Fine Arts explained "What we do on a day-to-day basis is unique to us, and what we deem to be significant and insignificant to these routines continues to shift temporarily or perhaps permanently throughout the pandemic.

"Within this pandemic, the pressure to be a certain way has been daunting," she said. "The pressure to be productive, to make, to self-care, to connect, to disconnect. But in this unprecedented time, how we should be feeling and what we should be doing has been dismantled."

Ms. MacKinnon said after weeks of feeling overpowered by the feeling of unproductivity, she woke up one morning and decided to paint a self-portrait. It took three hours, and would just be a small accomplishment for her that day.

"I began to talk to other artists in Newfoundland and Labrador, asking them of an accomplishment they have had in this time: something small and perhaps seemingly mundane but important to them," she said "I began to paint their portraits within the same time parameters. The routine and mindful act of quick paintings allows a state of quiet presence within anxiousness."

Pandemic Portraits was first exhibited at the Grenfell Campus Art Gallery with a subsequent exhibition at The Rooms. The body of work will be the subject of a new book being launched February 10 2022; the launch will be hosted by Grenfell Art Gallery and Eastern Edge, and there will be a preorder available (date TBA). The book will feature texts from Matthew Hills, Grenfell visual arts graduate Jane Walker, and Katie Marie Bruce and is designed by Hazel Eckert.

Pandemic Portrait: Jordan Bennett

Pandemic Portraits has also been featured in:

2021

2020

About the artist:

Michelle MacKinnon is an artist and educator in Elmastukwek, on the island of Ktaqmkuk, also known as the Bay of Islands in Newfoundland & Labrador. Within her practice, Ms. MacKinnon looks at the ways in which we connect to and personally identify with the (un)familiarities of home. She explores themes of longing, (un)belonging, domesticity, memory, place, and repetitious labour, questioning our comfort with the many constructs of home. Ms. MacKinnon graduated with an MFA and BFA in visual arts from York University and has since taught at Grenfell Campus, Memorial University, York University and Algoma University. She has participated in residencies and exhibitions internationally, including The Rooms, Grenfell Art Gallery, Eastern Edge, Modern Fuel and The State Hermitage Museum (Russia). She has received numerous grants including ArtsNL the Ontario Arts Council, and is a three-time recipient of The Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation grant.