Check Out Micaela McLucas’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Micaela McLucas

Hi Micaela, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I spent a lot of my childhood quite literally in the clouds. I am fourth generation LA native on my dad’s side, but my mom is originally from Argentina, so I went back and forth between languages and cultural identities and literally crossing continents on 15 hour flights. I so desperately wanted to be like all the other very cookie cutter kids of the suburban town I went to school with, and I find that so funny now because I am such a die hard rebel. Not fitting in made me really nourish my imagination. I knew when I was 5 that I wanted to be an artist and get as far away from here as possible. The biggest irony is that after 15 years of living and traveling around the world, fate punched me in the gut and I realized everything I want in life is here now.

My path has zigzagged and yet always stayed focused. I studied painting and philosophy in college, dropping out constantly and changing directions with the wind. My dad died really suddenly of cancer when I was 21, it has never stopped rattling my coordinates and kept me on my toes. From that day on I’ve never spent a day of my life not living like a mighty river. I dropped everything and moved to New York and then Paris and then London. Never quite getting too comfortable but always trying to sponge up the most out of life. Around the time my dad got sick I fumbled into this amazing art course at Santa Monica College with an angel called Linda Lopez that met in an airport hangar every friday. She saw something in me that no one else had before and she forced me to do the Artist’s Way. I had to write the morning pages and I just never stopped. I have 15 years of them now, which is insane considering what a wild ride I’ve been on.

I began taking photography more seriously when I was in New York because I just could never articulate the awe I felt in everything I was seeing around me. It took me so many years to figure out how anyone made money with their art. I did’t have any financial support, I’ve always done it all on my own. I tried so many different paths. I remember moving to the city so naive, assuming I’d just fall into gallery representation and living in a gorgeous high rise apartment in Manhattan. Instead I was scraping by, sharing a warehouse in south Williamsburg with 10 other people. I had with no windows in my room and half the time I was in hiding because I didn’t have enough money to pay my rent. I worked in a bar at night and grabbed at any opportunity to take pictures, the camera was (and still is) glued to my hand. I felt so alive. It took me so many years of banging on doors and constantly making my work to finally make it my full time career and I still can’t believe it, even though I refused to ever have it any other way.

My formation in painting fed into the photography I was making and I started to build a really colorful universe that kept changing shapes and growing. I fell into advertising and I couldn’t believe that there was space for what I made there, but not just that I realized finally that there needed to be more work like mine out there. We spend so long when we’re young comparing ourselves and wanting what other people have, and it’s only when we live in our authenticity that life really flows. My career has exploded into the film world now, and even the journals i’ve kept my whole life have become the bones for my screenwriting. I realized after getting my MFA in London that cinema is the most powerful medium as a contemporary artist. There’s no better way to reach a large audience and really provoke people to react and feel something. After getting so frustrated at how complicated women are being written by men I knew I had to punch my way in and tell the stories my way.

Im super passionate about life and making work that connects me both more to it and also to other people. I’m always experimenting with new formats and mediums, edging between fantasy and reality, truth and fiction. Being back home has been this full circle moment for me and also so much new and old material being washed together that has really charged my creativity in new ways. This is a strange city to live in but it’s so full of energy, it’s really powerful when you channel it the right way. I find it really funny how a lot of people have such negative things to say about LA, I often do to, it’s really hard at times but you have to find humor in it! I think it’s a complicated time in history in general, but also I think it’s important to imagine the world a better place (even here!) I really believe we have to leave the world a better place than we found it. As artists it’s our job to create that possibility, or that possibility stops existing.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
It’s hard to narrow down what I specialize in. I’ve always been an artist that’s evolved with different mediums. Mostly these days though I am a writer, director, and photographer. My work is dark and bright and bonkers. I’ve travelled and lived around the world so my point of view has become really unique and equally other worldly. There are a lot of psychedelic elements in everything I do because I’ve always really tried to push past the boundaries of things, even what is photography and how I tell my stories.. Even in the advertising commissions I get, I really try to both ground them in something authentic while also adding sprinkles of magic to them. That’s probably the best way to explain my crazy little universe I’ve been brewing. I really love what I do more than anything and you can see that in my work.

What I’m most proud of is swallowing my pride to move back to Los Angeles when I realized I really needed to focus on making my films (and being in the sun !!! ). I’m currently writing my first feature film and I’m in production of a really out of this world short film that’s all based on true events.

I guess what sets me apart from other people is that I’ve always been fully devoted to constantly refining and building on my vision. I’ve always made my motto “If you’re not living on the edge, you’re taking up too much space”. And both in my personal life and my career I’ve tried to never be too comfortable or take anything too easy because I’ve always just wanted to soak up the most out of life and always challenge myself to be better. I’m never not flipping out when. I see how far I’ve come and I also really believe in having the most fun on the journey as well.

What are your plans for the future?
I’ve definitely just taken on a huge change by being back here and pushing into Hollywood full force. I can’t wait to jump into even bigger projects and have my films premiere at big festivals. But most importantly I really want to spend more time by the ocean, surrounding myself with other people as ambitious about life as I am, and continuing to travel the world and making my work. I always try to take on bigger goals but maintain my sense of presence and wonder.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.micaelamclucas.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/micaelamclucas

Image Credits
Copyright Micaela McLucas