Today we’d like to introduce you to Kija Lucas
Kija, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I began making photographs seriously in community college in the late 90s. I started taking classes to learn how to use my father’s camera after he passed away. I thought it would be one class after work, but I kept taking them until I decided to quit my job and go to college. I transferred to art school and eventually got my MFA.
I began by making photographs of people. I was curious about people and what makes us who we are. At some point, the people made their way out of the images and their spaces and the objects they keep became the focus of my work.
I began documenting botanicals in 2013, around 8 years after I learned of the racial taxonomy of Carl Linneaus in an undergraduate humanities class. It was one page in a reader, and I finally had the language to talk about the construct of race. As a mixed kid from the “melting pot generation,” I found this information invaluable. Linnaeus was the 18th century Swedish botanist responsible for the taxonomic naming systems for plants and animals. He also created a taxonomy of man, which was incredibly racist and hierarchical. His definitions of different races of man echo in stereotypes we have today.
My botanical documentation is made with a flatbed scanner, a nod to Anna Atkins and the first photographic book made with cyanotype. While the scanner is not a contact print method, it is a contact photographic method. I took my scanner through 13 states, including California, and documented botanical clippings found in spaces where my ancestors migrated, or were brought to, lived, worked, and labored. I find that the language used around botanicals and the language used to describe groups of people to be similar. I made sure I documented both indigenous and misplaced botanicals. This work continues in my current project, “The Enchanted Garden,” up at the Palo Alto Art Center closing December 15th.
While making “The Enchanted Garden,” I considered my childhood, growing up in Palo Alto, my father’s gardening business of the same name, and the cul de sac I grew up on which was an intentionally integrated neighborhood conceived of in the 1940s and built in the 1950s.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It has absolutely not been a smooth road. I think the main struggles come from living in one of the most expensive places in the world as well as the time and money that it takes to make art. I have often had to choose day jobs over my practice in order to pay the bills, like so many other artists.
Another one of my main hurdles has also been struggles with self-worth and lacking confidence in my work. I remember the year I finished graduate school, there was radio silence – I was denied everything I applied to and no one seemed interested in what I was making. I worried that there wasn’t a place for my art, or that it was too personal. I questioned myself, but I also kept making art. I never felt like I had another option.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I am an artist working in photography and installation. I create immersive experiences using images of botanicals and objects. My work considers how decisions made generations ago impact who we are and how we experience the world. While ideas lead my practice, I find aesthetics equally as important. I want my images to draw in the viewer and invite them to have a deeper conversation.
At this point, I would say I specialize in making images of botanicals, tools, and sentimental objects. I like to think that that can and will shift over time.
I am currently most proud of the work I have made for “The Enchanted Garden” at the Palo Alto Art Center. I hope to be most proud of the next thing I make. I am also proud of the community I have managed to wrangle around me. I have worked hard to forge friendships and support other artists.
I have a hard time saying what sets me apart from others. I make what I am compelled to make. I work hard to make what I visualize come to fruition, sometimes to the detriment of my finances and/or mental health. I am a good friend and do my best to be a good arts community member. I am incredibly shy, and I push through my fears because otherwise I would not be able to be an artist.
Can you talk to us a bit about happiness and what makes you happy?
I love it when my dog, Handsome, rests his chin on my foot or really any part of me. Seeing the light of magic hour enveloping the afternoon, showing off the beauty of everyday things. When my partner laughs at his own jokes and his face looks exactly as it did in a photograph of him as a child. When I can see how proud my students get about the work they are making. When I see my friends succeeding and growing in life. I am happy when a thing I have been struggling with in the studio begins to work, when I went home the night before frustrated and was able to figure it out in my sleep and when I return to the studio my sleep solution works. I love it when I can find focus, and get lost in picture making. When I get to go for a walk to collect things and bring them back to the studio to photograph them. Also, good coffee and a perfectly ripe avocado.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.kijalucas.com
- Instagram: @kijalucas
- Facebook: /kijalucas
Image Credits
Damien Maloney, Michael Halberstadt, Kija Lucas
