paula_mccartney@mcad.edu
http://paulamccartney.com/
she/her/hers

BIO 

Paula McCartney makes artist books, photographs, and ceramics that illustrate her collaborations with the natural world and consider ways that light activates both objects and environments. McCartney holds an MFA in Photography from the San Francisco Art Institute and has received grants from the Women’s Studio Workshop, the Aaron Siskind Foundation, the McKnight Foundation and the Minnesota State Arts Board. Her books are included in the collections of the Walker Art Center, Museum of Modern Art, Yale University, New York Public Library, and the Joan Flasch Artist Book Collection among many others. She has two published monographs Bird Watching (2010) and A Field Guide to Snow and Ice (2014). McCartney has taught as an adjunct instructor at MCAD since 2007 and is currently a 2020/21 McKnight Book Artist Fellow.

TEACHING PHILOSOPHY & MENTORSHIP

Making art, particularly during graduate school, is a process of understanding what you are interested in and how those ideas become a visual experience through experimentation, research and discussion. I bring my passion for making art, my personal experiences with graduate school, and my life as a practicing artist and educator (in both studio art and professional practice) to the mentoring relationship. I am interested in working with a student who wants to fully explore the themes in their art both in the studio and outside of it. I believe with a mentor’s guidance in discussing work, viewing art in the community, attending lectures, and researching both historical and contemporary works, an artist can better learn how their work dialogues with other art, the community and the world.