A Chat with Jan McCarthy, the multi-disciplinary artist behind the new print collaboration for VENIA’s S6 MNTL Collection
Last year, we met with our dear friend, Los Angeles based artist, Jan McCarthy, and began chatting about the importance of how fashion and art have the power to seamlessly and honestly showcase emotions. Throughout the cup of coffee, we also began speaking at length about the importance of positive mental health, a notion that seems fleeting in our age of technology and branding, but that is more important than ever to speak about.
Our print collaboration with McCarthy is rooted in the expressions of many emotions, founded in the ideals that all emotions, wild or vulnerable, are beautiful and essential to humanity. This print is woven in sustainable wood-based textile Viscose/Cupro and printed with our partners in Turkey. With the reality of the global COVID-19 Pandemic, creating awareness for mental health is paramount. In the dialogue below, McCarthy opens up about the deep meaning behind her art and how it sheds a light on the importance of mental health.
VENIA: What inspired you to make this print?
JM: Life, in its complexity. I am inspired by real life visuals, but that interpretation is of my own understanding of what life is about. Abstract, complex, irregular, light, beautiful, kindness, dark, soft, hard, edgy, bold, courageous, scary, insecurity. And even though most of my art is black and white, it points out the juxtaposition that life is not. There is a lot of messy and beautiful in between the lines and marks. The internal factors are just as important as the external. It’s not always what we see. It’s what inside, hidden in between the layers of mixed media, life and other materials.
VENIA: What does art mean to you?
