Pushing beyond limits: Artist Lucy Maki rejects rigid classifications with her multidimensional works

Lucy Maki doesn’t want to be categorized.

Sitting in her studio, surrounded by an eclectic mix of her two- and three-dimensional paintings and sculptures, Maki speaks passionately about her dislike for rigid classifications.

“I’ve never liked being boxed in,” she said, gesturing towards her abstract work. “Art is about freedom, exploration and pushing beyond limits.”

Pushing beyond limits: Painter Lucy Maki rejects rigid classifications with her multidimensional works

Maki moves through her space with a practiced ease, surrounded by the tools of her trade, as she recounts how art was part of her life from an early age.

“I’ve always done it,” she said. “My mom would be on the phone, and then she’d turn around, and the whole kitchen cupboards were painted with peanut butter.”

In high school, Maki faced a choice between her love for music and art. Opting for art, she recalled the disappointment of her band teacher, who saw her potential in music. Yet, her love for visual creativity won out, leading her to pursue art classes.

“I just loved doing it,” she said, a sentiment that has clearly endured throughout her career.

Maki continued her love for art at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she initially pursued a broad liberal arts education, taking various classes to fulfill general requirements.

However, it was during a late-night art project in her sophomore year that Maki realized her true calling.

“I thought, I could do this 24 hours a day and never get bored,” she said.

That realization led Maki to declare an art major, despite what she said were the intimidating statistics about the scarcity of women in the field.

“It was kind of scary to make that decision because I’d see things in Time Magazine saying that art was the most discriminatory field for women,” she said. “There were like no women in art, or very few, and they didn’t get shown.”

Maki specialized in printmaking, particularly lithography, but her experimental and collage-like approach prompted her professors to encourage her to explore painting.

Following their advice, she applied to several graduate schools, eventually choosing the University of New Mexico. The decision was influenced by her admiration for visiting artists and the promise of New Mexico’s affordable living and vibrant art scene.

“Out of all the professors I would be working with, Garo Antreasian’s work really resonated with me,” she said of the late printmaker, who taught at UNM. “I also wanted to go somewhere that would feel like a foreign country, and so that’s how I ended up here.”

Living in New Mexico has profoundly influenced Maki’s art. She said the vast landscapes, dramatic lighting and rich Native American cultural heritage subtly show in her work.

“You just absorb everything, whether consciously or not,” she said.

Transitioning from printmaking to painting wasn’t without its challenges for Maki. She recalls the environment at her graduate school, where she felt rigid categorizations of art forms often stifled her creativity.

“Are you sculpture? Are you printmaking? What are you doing?” she said.

Determined to break from these categories, Maki’s work began to flourish as she combined dimensional elements with her paintings.

Maki said her process of creating a new painting usually begins with small sketches.

“I do little thumbnails, tons of them, playing with shapes,” she said, showing her stack of sketchbooks.

Once she has a concept that excites her, she sometimes transfers the sketch to an iPad to experiment with colors and composition using the Procreate app. However, she emphasizes the importance of not becoming too reliant on digital tools early in the process.

“You have to trust your body,” she said. “The painting will tell you what it needs.”

With a rough plan in place, Maki then begins to construct the physical piece. For her sculptural paintings, this involves building a shaped canvas or panel, often incorporating three-dimensional elements.

As she works, Maki often encounters roadblocks where the piece feels stuck. She describes this phase as “brutal and ugly,” but essential for finding the right direction.

“It’s like cracking a code,” she said. “Once you crack the code, everything falls into place and you enter a state of flow.”

The final stages involve refining the piece, balancing colors and textures to create the final piece. Maki said her goal is to evoke a sensory and emotional response from the viewer.

“I want it to be more of a feeling-based and sensation-based experience,” she said.

Her early career saw rapid success, with her unique dimensional canvases quickly gaining attention and gallery representation in Santa Fe.

Throughout her career, Maki has drawn inspiration from different artists.

Maki said she has always been captivated by the geometric abstraction of Russian Constructivists, particularly Kazimir Malevich.

“I did my dissertation on Malevich,” Maki said. “His work with geometric shapes and his writings about art were hugely influential to me.”

Maki also said she has a deep appreciation for the Latin American geometric abstraction movement, particularly the work being done in Brazil and Argentina.

She draws inspiration from more contemporary artists as well, including the works of Judy Pfaff, Amy Sillman and Joanne Greenbaum.

“Most of my favorite artists today are women,” Maki said. “They’re doing really challenging and fantastic work.”

Today, Maki continues to push boundaries with her work, blending geometric abstraction with expressive, gestural elements. Her recent favorite piece, “Through the Looking Glass,” invites viewers to explore multiple layers within a single canvas.

As she looks to the future, Maki is content with her place in the art world, finding joy and fulfillment in her ongoing exploration of form, color, and space. What she wants people to take away from her work is simple: “Just a love of art, and a desire to see more art in other places.”