Amanda Mulcahy
Art form(s): Painting and Fiber arts
CAPE Teaching Artist since 2023
Education:
BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Bio:
Amanda Mulcahy is a multidisciplinary artist and educator. She is guided by her desire to understand how natural processes unfold, and how our daily lives get embedded into these systems. Inspired by her young children’s drawing and storytelling, Amanda has recently been exploring how we use mark making to make sense of the world around us and to record memories. Her work distills these interactions and playfully translates them into colorful abstractions in painting, collage, and fiber art. She holds a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She teaches at Lillstreet Art Center, Evanston Art Center, and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Artist Statement:
My paintings have been moving off stretcher bars and contorting themselves into new, soft forms. I begin by painting on cotton fabric while inviting my young children to make marks on the fabric with me. We respond to those lines with narratives and then respond to each other’s stories with more drawing, like a visual game of telephone. The fabric is then stretched over cut boards cut into organic shapes, and stuffed full of fiberfill. Forms dissolve and patterns emerge creating a dreamy record of our time together. Layers build upon each other to make these squishable abstract paintings.
