Lynda McClanahan's Victorian Village home is decorated with dozens of her paintings, from women dressed in Indian attire to animals drawn with feminine features. The local artist and Cincinnati native is currently being featured in the Hopkins Hall Gallery exhibit called "Pulp Stiction: Collage as an Act of Resistance."
Getting featured in a gallery doesn't happen often for McClanahan, and collage is rarely her choice of medium. At 74 years old, she is still finding her place in Columbus' art scene.
"I wanted to be picked up by a gallery and maybe cultivated...probably make a name for myself," she said. "Sometimes it doesn't happen, it just doesn't, and then you have to decide are you going to keep doing it? Why are you doing it?"
An artist's self-worth
McClanahan's art studio lies in the loft of her home. It's an easel placed in front of a window. On another wall in the loft, there's a stack of donated frames. McClanahan said being an artist is expensive and often doesn't bring the fruits of its labor.
"We take so much of our self-worth from how successful we are at making money, and here you are pouring everything you've got into this and you think, I'm not really quite sure why I'm doing this," she said.
McClanahan said the psychological aspects are the hardest part of being an artist.
"Feelings of being a failure, feelings of being embarrassed because your imagery is just not accepted by many," she said. "A lot of us are really neurotic and we're looking for validation out there in a way."
She compares an artist's experience to being in high school and wanting the "popular girls" to like her.
Womanhood and spirituality
McClanahan's collage in the Ohio State gallery is called, "Mother," which connects resistance to motherhood and includes old Hindu calendars and Asian advertisements.
McClanahan says her art serves as a spiritual directive. Most of her art is inspired by her travels in southern India with Hindu monks, Malaysia and parts of southeast Asia. Raised as a Presbyterian Christian, she has explored many forms of spirituality throughout her life including Buddhism and Hinduism.
"People were not ashamed of color," she said. "From a Western perspective, I might see an Indian painting and not know what the myth is behind it or the religious story (it's) behind, but just looking at it creates somethin. It sort of shakes the spider web."
A component that often appears in McClanahan's art is a figure called "Red Woman," who appeared as a vision to her when she was feeling defeated on a spiritual retreat.
"I was at a time in my life where...I was crazy for God, I wanted God so much, I was literally out of my mind with desire for God," she said. "I opened my eyes and I had a vision of this gigantic naked red woman, and she spoke to me and she said, 'why are you looking for me everywhere. I'm right here.'"
Music
McClanahan is also a trained musician. In the 70's, she met her husband, Joel Knepp, who was a guitarist at local venues and began performing the accordion with him.
" I thought he was kind of a groovy guy," she said. "He said, 'oh, I wanna play music with a woman, would you play music with me'? And I said, 'well, all right.'"
McClanahan and her husband still perform. Against the wall in her dining room is a piano where she rehearses for her monthly performance at her local church.
"I'm so glad that I was trained as a musician (and) that I get this chance to do music," she said. "It's like a fog that goes out and reaches out to people, and oh, it's the most delicious, wonderful, righteous thing that you can do."
Art with purpose
Despite the many struggles that have come along McClanahan's journey as an artist, she continues to create. For her, art has become a source of healing and meditation rather than her career.
"I feel like I'm putting something in the world that wouldn't be there otherwise and that wants to be there," she said.
More information on McClanahan's art and upcoming shows can be found on her website.
