Andrea McKenna Art

                                                     Photo by Anna Ryabtsov

What happens between the time we take our last breath to arriving at our final destination?  This is the fundamental question that informs my work. 

For me, the grieving process is crafted into something visual. Creating imaginative answers to the questions; “is there an afterlife and what does it look like?” 

I was sparked by this interest at a young age.  It was my desire to be an artist so that I could articulate my thoughts visually.  It wasn’t until I was deeply affected by a series of sudden losses that my work began to emerge with a new purpose.

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And with this purpose came the introduction of new materials that craft these in-between bodies. Those elements become part of my dialogue--texturing parts of the figure, creating a resemblance of a body that is torn apart, crafting scars, enabling light to peek through, exposing the energy that exists there.  While I use physical materials, the figures themselves are spiritual and speak a narrative of their own existence. 

I work with burlap, layering Limestone plaster with stains and acrylics while occasionally employing metal leaf.  I use chains or rope to secure the pieces to driftwood that I find in my travels to the seashore. This gives the work an anchor. 

My hope is to transport viewers to another place and to introduce them to figures that are not of this world, but perhaps of an “in-between” world. My works represent a spirit forming, traveling to their final destination--shedding all their earthly worries and carrying with them, their new found inner light.