ARTIST STATEMENT
I create paintings to explore my inner world. My work often revolves around loss, grief, and the complex ties of family – especially the dual identity I’ve held as a mother and as a daughter to parents who were dying. For a decade, I was the emotional anchor for both of my parents as they declined with dementia. Though they lived in a care facility, I remained physically present for their emotional support while managing their medical decisions, finances, and end-of-life planning. These responsibilities overlapped with early motherhood, creating my quiet but consuming role of caregiver. Parentless was my first painting after my father’s death. The glowing, burning face represents not only grief, but the chronic pain and nervous system damage left behind from a decade of caregiving. It’s a portrait of being emptied out after years of planning, worrying, and supporting others – only to be left without parents in the end. I paint primarily in oils, drawn to the way they hold brushstrokes and memory. My influences include Klee, Munch, and folk art.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Mackenna Morse is an artist based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. While she attended Kendall College of Art and Design, her deepest artistic education came from growing up with her mother, a painter and Art Restoration Specialist who taught her to create from a young age. As an only child, Mackenna spent her summers making cardboard dioramas, collages, and hand-sewn dolls. She was equally shaped by folk art traditions and absurdist television like Ren & Stimpy and Pee Wee’s Playhouse. After pausing her art practice for several years to focus on work and raising a family, Mackenna returned to painting in her 30s during a period of profound grief. Both of her parents were diagnosed with dementia. Her mother passed away quickly; her father’s decline was long. Mackenna became their caregiver, offering consistent emotional support while managing medical decisions, finances, and long-term care. She carried this invisible labor while also parenting two young children. It was the loss of her mother, the artist, that finally pushed Mackenna to try her mother’s favorite medium: oil paints. Her work now explores themes of grief, identity, family, and home. She paints primarily in oils, using bold color palettes and forms that reflect her love of abstraction, folk aesthetics, and heirloom quilts. Her work is expressive, emotionally layered, and often childlike in its visual language. Mackenna’s work has been shown in group exhibitions in Grand Rapids and Chicago. She continues to paint from her small home studio while her kids are at school.
© Mackenna Morse