Mekdela Maskal
We took a moment with local artist and all around creative Mekdela Maskal. Here she is pictured beneath her collaboration with Bear Yuba Land Trust for last year’s Celebration of Trails, combining the love for the outdoors with site specific art installations. This piece, called “Prayer Flags” was dyed with locally sourced natural materials and installed along Cascade Trail.
We asked Maskal what her preferred medium is and the answer is one we feel resonates with most artists. “Relationship. I think relationships have always been a site of creation for me. I’m not unique in that, I think it is for everyone. We’re not isolated, individual creatures. I think that’s one of the major modern mirages. Decentering humanity through relationships is an important aspect of my practice. And I think I’ve been able to reach for that more since living here. How can I know and be known by the moss? The ochre? The clay? As someone who cares for them, who creates with them?”
We wanted to know more about Mekdela Maskal’s creative process. As someone that works in relationship with her materials and the environment, what are a few of the ways she remains inspired.
“It’s about investigating aliveness, creating belonging and studying love and pleasure. That’s how relationships have come into focus. I am because you are. A teacher of mine, Tilke Elkins, called herself a process artist when we were in class, and that resonates with me too. The art IS the walk, the laughter, the ceremony, the dying and the dyeing. It’s when my hands are in the clay soil and when I ask the tree if I can have their bark. It’s in the WE–the relationship–that I am inspired to create. So I am often very nervous about how that comes through when folks view an art piece as a final result–a sculpture, a painting, or a performance–and that’s a major surrender for me.”
We always ask our artists what they’re most proud of. Maskal’s response reminds us of the parts of ourselves and our human nature we may all struggle with at times.
“Choosing to be alive and ever changing. That is also the part of art making that brings me pride. Not so much the thing that gets produced, but the act of entering a process or relationship to be changed.”
In exploring her experience of our creative community, Maskal had some poignant feedback to share. “I’m grateful for the people who’ve received my tenderness, my grief and my challenging questions as loving inquiry. I want to specifically name Ember Amador, Mira Clark and Shelly Covert for their generous welcoming.
I hope readers don’t mind me sharing some criticism as care too. I’ve had a hard time with the spiritual bypassing experienced here. There’s a turning away from darkness, shame and grief that I think is holding folks back from making generative sanctuary with this beautiful place. The shadows are important too. Art is how we grapple with life, not just with light. I’m yearning for more grappling in the human community here.”
We asked Maskal what’s coming up for her and the response reflects her dedication to relationship and reciprocity within the community. “Winter is a restful and contemplative time for me. I'm researching and praying on some paintings, but I feel most called to share the Nisenan Homeland Return project. It’s a beautiful invitation to join in the repair work we are all accountable to as folks who call these lands home.”
This story originally appeared in the February 15th, 2024 edition of the GVNC Culture Connection newsletter.
