MacLennan was selected as artist-in-residence at Prairie enter of the Arts, in Peoria, Illinois; Jentel, in northern Wyoming; Montana Artists Refuge, and Eye-Lan Coordination in Montana. Most recently, Amy and her husband fellow MPG member, Michael Neary, were chosen to complete a 96”mural for the Gilbert Wilson Memorial Mural Project in Terre Haute, Indiana.
Amy is an Associate Professor at McKendree University and director of the McKendree University Gallery of Art, in Lebanon, Illinois. Amy completed her MFA in painting and drawing at Indiana State University, in Terre Haute, IN.
In painting I have found a way to combine my one of narrative with the intense engagement I feel with the natural world. When I am outdoors, light posts, unkempt shrubbery, shorn fields and copses are configured by nature and human intervention in a rhythmic dance.
During the winter months I work in the studio from still life. Figurines and scraps of detritus are either stalked or preyed upon in an unfolding cycle that is infinitely repeated in a re-enactment reminiscent of history. It always seems miraculous to me when my collections of odd forms-broken and leftover- establish their roles in these still life dramas. Colors and forms tell a story that seemingly can’t be told in any other than a pictorial way.