Stained Glass Artist Amanda Maccagnan: Spirituality, Rebellion, and Alchemy

Not Real Art

“Making artwork probably saved my life,” says mixed-media artist Amanda Maccagnan. “[It] helped me figure out who I am, where I was going, and what I was doing—and it continues to do.”

Navigating the boundary between traditional techniques and contemporary influences, Amanda is rapidly making a name for herself as a rising star in the art world. Working primarily with stained glass, Amanda combines multiple mediums to create unexpected, radical pieces that satirize cultural expectations through exaggeration. Her bold, tongue-in-cheek works frame the artist as a rebel who’s comfortable with making her own rules whenever necessary.

On today’s podcast episode, host and NOT REAL ART founder Scott “Sourdough” Power sits down with Amanda to discuss the glass artist’s belief in the spiritual nature of her practice.

“My spiritual practice is one of open acceptance,” she says. “As a human, I just want to be receptive to whatever the universe has for me at this point. I believe in vibrational resonance and the powers of symbols and belief, as well as practical and intuitive magic. I feel like that's where my spirituality comes in with my work—it feels like it's more about an energetic realization that creating artwork and being able to manifest thoughts into something tangible and real is alchemy.”

Amanda shares her thoughts on using art as therapy, incorporating magic mushrooms into her creative process, and preserving archaic art forms, like glasswork, through apprenticeship. As you’ll discover, Amanda’s success story hinges on the artist’s resilience, reinvention, flexibility, and creative audacity: “There is no such thing as talent,” she quips. “Just try hard and believe in yourself. It's just putting yourself into what you do. That's the talent.” Tune into today’s podcast episode with Amanda Maccagnan for plenty of charm and just the right amount of attitude.

Key Points From This Episode:

• Amanda’s creative upbringing and what drew her to stained glass.
• Art as therapy: how making art helped her figure out who she is.
• Amanda’s love for John Waters and her inclusion in the Pope of Trash exhibition.
• The important role of apprenticeship in preserving traditional mediums like stained glass.
• Why Amanda says she took to glasswork like she’d been doing it her whole life.
• The alchemy of art: how artists can manifest their thoughts into something tangible.
• The role of psychedelics and spirituality in Amanda’s practice.
• Insight into her process and some of the exciting projects that she is working on currently.
• What John Waters had to say about the stained glass portraits Amanda created of him.
• Her journey into the novel world of augmented reality (AR) painting.
• The mental toll that the current state of the world takes for many young people today.
• Final thoughts on the nature of talent (and why Amanda believes there’s no such thing).

For more information, please visit http://notrealart.com/amanda-maccagnan