Fletcher Mackey was my Painting professor 2011-2012 at MICA. After graduation we kept in touch and exchanged FB messages occasionally, maybe once a year, and I just sent him a SunDogs Studio analog newsletter in the mail last week. Was hoping to meet up for tea sometime in Baltimore post-pandemic, to catch up and ask for his insight and feedback on recent work projects and upcoming ideas.
Fletcher was someone who challenged me to make more work about “(my) culture.” At the time, I thought he seemed dismissive of some experimental work I brought in, like psychedelic box paintings or scribbles i made on broken skateboard pieces. I was frustrated that he wouldn’t consider box-making or skateboarding to be my culture (something i did daily out of utility, and as transportation to school); he was suggesting that I dig further into ancestry and make work about ethnic culture (i.e. Asia, where I happened to not-be, and not easily accessible). I wanted Fletcher to see that I think of my “culture” and cultural practices as extending beyond merely what is Asian, because I grew up in Los Angeles and tuned into Californian radio and tv, I went to the mall, parks, and beaches; Making artwork about those things didn’t mean I was rejecting or resisting any culture, I was mirroring and referencing what I knew. But if I hadn’t listened to him and questioned the suggestion, then I wouldn’t have gone off the deep end, desperately trying to find out what he meant, and I probably wouldn’t have done all that constant questioning exploratory work of the past 10 years, applying for grants and exploring Taiwan, China, and Mongolia, expanding my ideas of what culture or identity even are. I realize now that a lot that work was made because I was so confused and frustrated by the idea, yet also challenged by my disconnection with my family ancestry (due to war and migration). I pursued these experiences fervently so that I could clarify my own opinion and formulate my response to him one day.
I wish I could’ve met with him one more time so that I could tell him those things. I think about that often, actually. I would have liked to tell him about what those Mongolian shamans said to me in the woods and out in the steppes, I wonder what he would have thought about that.
Sending thanks and gratitude to Fletcher Mackey for catalyzing a cascade of questions and profoundly changing my life. I was inspired by his energy and his presence, and all those silver bangles; I’m so grateful now, that he was assigned as my Studio professor. I will really miss him, and I’ll have to get used to the idea that I won’t have the chance to ask for his advice anymore... May we continue the conversation next lifetime, if I’m lucky.
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photo repost: @bmoreart