Makenna Lockwood

My work operates within the intersection between the alluring and the unsettling, making the strange familiar and the familiar strange. I explore notions of beauty through absurdity, piecing together that which does not belong in a way that seems inevitable. This idea derives from the absurdist German literary concept of the Verfremdungseffekt, or alienation effect. Although my primary medium is oil paint, I also incorporate various sculptural forms and materials in my art practice. I draw inspiration from nature, often employing landscape, animal, and plant imagery as symbols for the dualities I address in my work. This is my attempt to understand that what we value, what we scorn, and all that is fractured in between.