Local painter explores cancer, human hardship
Local painter Genevieve McClendon’s work is both universal and personal, exploring broad themes of human hardship in a unique, personal and emotionally charged way.
Her recent work focuses on the specific idea of cancer and the visceral emotions the disease conjures.
“Cancer is a huge epidemic in the world, but within the art world it’s something that hasn’t been addressed. It seems almost taboo,” she said.
Within McClendon’s own world, cancer is very present. Two years ago, McClendon’s long-term boyfriend, Kyle O’Connell, 28, was diagnosed with brain cancer and given six months to live. However, a surgeon at Duke University was able to successfully remove 99 percent of the tumor, and O’Connell is alive and well.
Helping her boyfriend through that tumultuous time caused McClendon, now 23, to reassess certain areas of her own life.
“That experience certainly changed my life for the better. As a 21-year-old, I knew that I had to make a commitment to myself and Kyle. I had to make a commitment to the healing process,” she said.
During that time, McClendon’s painting helped her to cope with the hardship.
“My art was my therapy and my salvation and my survival,” McClendon said.
McClendon, originally from Colorado Springs, was inspired to pursue art by her high school art teacher. When she was first introduced to painting, it made sense to her as a way to digest the world, and she was immediately enthralled.
Following a year at Regis University in Denver in which she became dissatisfied with the Regis art program, McClendon transferred to CU, where she earned her B.F.A.
McClendon describes her work as “abstract expressionist,” but she says that really, she creates energy and spiritual paintings. Through her work, she attempts to communicate energy and pure emotion.
“I’m interested in what is more relevant in life, what captivates people and makes them question their own reality and truth,” she says.
McClendon is influenced by artists such as Russian avant-garde painter Kazimir Malevich and Mexican muralist Diego Rivera.
“For a long time, I’ve painted and drawn faces, but we (artists) have already done that. As an artist, I like to create what is not seen but what is felt,” she said.
Now that McClendon has graduated from CU, she plans to pursue art as a career. Over the next year, she hopes to develop a solid body of work and then eventually attend graduate school.
“I’m very driven,” she says. “This is my life. I don’t think I could really do anything but this. I want to walk authentically and with truth in this world.”
