Today we’d like to introduce you to Patrick McMahon.
Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
I was born in Chicago, adopted and raised in its suburbs until my high school years when my family moved to a small Missouri town. After engineering school at the University of Missouri in Columbia, working for many years in northern California, then returning to school for a Bachelor of Music in clarinet performance from San Francisco State, I returned to the Midwest and began to develop my life-long love of photography more seriously. During this time, I searched for and found my family of origin, an endeavor which changed the direction of my life. I began working in portraiture and exhibiting my fine art photos, becoming nationally exhibited. In 2011, I published a memoir called Becoming Patrick, about growing up adopted, searching for my birth family, reuniting with them and the complex unfolding afterwards. That project became woven into my photo work, which I also use for a line of greeting cards and calendars entitled Touched By Adoption. Since moving to San Diego in 1999, I’ve also been active in music, playing in the Hillcrest Wind Ensemble and the Heliotrope Ragtime Orchestra.
Please tell us about your art.
My photography was mostly black and white for many many years. It was landscape, urban, street, reflections and other styles. In the early 2000’s I embraced color and digital photography and I found myself looking closer and closer at what I was shooting until the macro lens got me so close, reality disappeared. I began to see vague little spots on streets, walls, cars, anything, then photograph them about an inch away and enlarge them. I loved the abstract qualities and this has evolved into my current body of work. I wouldn’t say it was deliberate. More of an evolution from seeing farther in.
Photography makes me radically present. Since my first shots as a kid with a Polaroid Swinger, looking through a viewfinder has fostered seeing reality, whether during a sometimes stormy childhood, the corporate engineering phase, the music school years, the emotionally turbulent search for my original family after growing up adopted, or when traveling and developing my fine art. Photography also makes me brave. With a camera I do what I wouldn’t, from approaching a wild bison within five feet or a stranger on a street or crawling around for macro shots on the floor of the top of the Arc de Triomphe. But perhaps most of all, photography makes me free. It is a means for my soul to thrive.
What do you think about conditions for artists today? Has life become easier or harder for artists in recent years? What can cities like ours do to encourage and help art and artists thrive?
I think exposure for artists has exploded with social media tools such as Facebook, Instagram, and numerous other platforms. Because of that it seems more important to me to develop a unique style and presentation to stand out in the crowd.
Arts education in schools is so important in planting seeds and encouraging both creative expression and creative thinking. Cities should invest in this as much as possible. Cities can also support artists with public art programs, zoning and subsidies for studio space.
How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
With my diverse background in art, writing, music, and engineering, I am able to approach creative expression from a range of viewpoints. My recent work explores the universal through the macro lens. Extreme close-ups when enlarged become expressions of my soul, and for the observer, windows into other worlds.
My photo work has been exhibited nationally for over twenty years and featured in numerous group and solo shows. Most recently, my photography was seen in San Diego at Art On 30th Gallery, Inspirations Gallery, and The Studio Door, including The Studio Door’s 50 TO WATCH in 2016, a regional exhibition that produces a national publication. Inclusion was juried by curators of the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego and the Mingei International Museum.
Folks can view a new photo every day on Instagram @pjrex. My website can be found at patrickmc.com.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.patrickmc.com
- Email: patrickm@cox.net
- Instagram: @pjrex
- Facebook: pjrex
- Twitter: pjrex
Image Credit:
Patrick McMahon
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