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Bio

Patrick McKenna

Self Portrait, 2007

I grew up in the Southwest deserts of Arizona, Nevada, and California, but always longed to live in the Pacific Northwest. As an adult, I found myself moving slowly northward, eventually finding my way “home” to Seattle in 2001.

Always seeking an outlet for my creative energy, my early formal studies included writing, music, and poetry. I dabbled in various forms of art most of my life, but earned a living in office settings with my administrative and computer skills. I finally realized in my early 40s that my most passionate affinity is for visual art, when I started seriously experimenting with paper and paint. I took up collage as my primary art form in 2005, and in 2007, I entered my first juried show where my work earned a merit award.

I have been a member of the Northwest Collage Society since 2006, and work in collage, acrylics, watercolor, oil pastel, drawing, printmaking, and photography, often combining several media and techniques in a single piece. My inspiration comes from both the natural and man-made worlds, and, although I am still experimenting with my style, I am heavily influenced by Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Expressionism, and Surrealism; particularly Vincent Van Gogh, James A.M. Whistler, JMW Turner, John Singer Sargent, Salvador Dali, Giorgio De Chirico, Paul Klee, and Edvard Munch, as well as contemporary colorists like Patty A. Baker, Wolf Kahn and Stephen Quiller.

I use collage to layer ideas and bring together an array of disparate objects into a coherent and meaningful whole; attempting to make sense of the chaos of the material world, often re-arranging papers and materials like puzzle pieces until they all “fit” and the puzzle is complete. I love creating a collage with no paint; using translucent papers to layer in the color.

EXHIBITIONS

2007

  • Northwest Collage Society Spring Members’ Exhibit, Lynnwood Library Gallery, Lynnwood WA
  • Mukilteo Lighthouse Festival Art Show, Mukilteo, WA
  • Lynnwood Library Gallery Themed Exhibit “Orange Crush,” Lynnwood, WA
  • Northwest Collage Society Members’ Exhibit, ArtsNow at Edmonds Conference Center, Edmonds, WA

2008

  • Northwest Collage Society Members’ Exhibit, collaboration with Cancer Lifeline, Dorothy S. O’Brien Center, Seattle, WA
  • Lynnwood Library Gallery Themed Exhibit “Mellow Yellow,” Lynnwood, WA

AWARDS & HONORS

  • 2007, Merit Award, Northwest Collage Society Spring Members’ Exhibit