Sacha Mlynek – Akin Collective

Sacha is different from the other Akin artists I have photographed because she is in a state of limbo. Still, she was brave enough to share this part of life as an artist that is rarely talked about:

I haven’t produced anything formal in years. I’m basically on an artist-on-pause.”
No one really warns you for it or talks about it; this deafening part of the artist life-cycle where you’re not quite an artist and even quite possibly, ugh, a hobbyist. What happens when you aren’t the art-star and you aren’t the super ambitious self-promoter?
Making images has always worked the best for me when the chord of my theory crossed over the chord of my visual language; as if such a reverberation then manifested into actual motivation. And although what was important for me to say when I was in art school remains important for me to say today, it seems like I can’t be motivated beyond feeling guilty for not working. And the guilt turns into resolute complacency. I mean, I didn’t even notice when the server for my website didn’t auto-renew payments and it was taken over by an e-com site selling hats. So what gives?

I’ve received all the typical advice: try working on something new, take a class, give yourself deadlines. But, I think this is just something I have to sit through and patiently wait for those two chords to cross over once again.
–Sacha Mlynek

Sacha Mlynek is an OCAD graduate living and working in Toronto. She travels the world and comes back to make work that explores the internal spaces of her home. The paintings she creates are a discussion of how deeply connected we are to these spaces while home and abroad. Her work is influenced by this dichotomy and the relationship we have to our inside spaces.