A little reintroduction from the fjords of Iceland. 🌈
I’m Mackenzie, a Canadian artist, printmaker, educator, animal lover, and someone who believes creativity can genuinely enrich lives. Lately I’ve been spending my days making books, hiking, filming moments from this landscape, and reflecting on the kind of life I want to build through art, nature, and community.
I believe nature has the power to reconnect us to ourselves. I believe curiosity matters. I believe divisiveness keeps us from seeing each other clearly. And I still believe making things with our hands means something in this world.
Thanks for following along with the journey here in Iceland. These books are becoming something else! ✌️
@westfjordsresidency
#contemporaryart #printmaking #artistlife #iceland #creativecommunity
Thrilled to share my installation for the Mississauga Festival of Trees, created in collaboration with @creativehub_1352 . This work featured 15,000 digitally cut cedar leaves made from recycled materials, exploring our connection but also disconnection to nature through vibrant texture and colour.
The piece reflects how we interact with the natural world - its beauty, resilience, and fragility.
Cedar trees have long been symbols of strength, resilience, and healing across many cultures and traditions. Often referred to as the “Tree of Life,” they embody a deep connection to the land and the ecosystems they support. This installation draws on that symbolism, encouraging reflection on how our growing disconnection from nature impacts these sacred relationships and the natural world we rely on.
Title: False Cedars
Artist: Mackenzie Browning
Medium: Recycled paper, paint, plywood, LED lighting and staples
Year: 2024
Dimensions: Variable
This installation was situated on the treaty lands and territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, within the traditional lands of the Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee, Huron Wendat, and Métis peoples.
The festival closed on Sunday evening, but I’m honoured to have contributed to such a meaningful event. A heartfelt thank you to everyone who supported this project - from the festival organizers to the incredible team at Creative Hub 1352 and all the volunteers who made it possible. Your hard work, creativity, and dedication made this installation a reality, and I am so grateful to have been part of it.
#installationart #contemporaryart #canadianartist #paperbasedart #recycledart #sitebasedart #mississaugaartist #environmentalart #cutpaperart #paperart #cedarart #greenart
Made the front page of The Wellington Times earlier this month. A kind feature on The Teardrop Effect at SHED Chetwyn Farms. 💧💧💧
The installation features hundreds of folded paper teardrops suspended in rhythm and light. It explores calmness, repetition, and how colour and movement can help us feel more connected. What began as an idea about emotion and atmosphere grew into a meditation on balance, perception, and care - a reminder that creativity can ground us through uncertain times.
It’s been a meaningful season of exhibitions, artist talks, and connection. If you get a chance, give the article a read. I share thoughts on understanding our emotions and resilience in the world we’re all navigating.
Grateful for SHED and for everyone who’s been part of this creative journey. 🩵 @shedchetwynfarms
#theteardropeffect #shedchetwynfarms #artistlife #installationart #paperart #resilience #communitythroughart #artinontario #wellingtontimes #creativeprocess
Somewhere between printmaking, sculpture, and storytelling 📖 🌊🪨
Over the past few weeks in Iceland, I’ve been building a new series of circular artist books shaped by water, atmosphere, memory, and shifting landscapes.
Each book takes roughly 35–40 hours of screen printing, sewing, sanding, gluing, and designing by hand. A slower kind of process. One built page by page.
One unexpected gift of being here has been the light. The days are so long that I can spend hours in the studio and still hike beside the fjords afterwards with daylight stretching late into the evening.
I think the landscape has slowly started shaping the work too.
Which detail or moment in the process resonates with you most?
#contemporaryart #printmaking #artistbook #screenprinting #artistsoninstagram
Have you ever noticed how water can hold emotion without explaining it?
Lately I’ve been drawn to distortion, shifting reflections, waves folding into themselves, landscapes briefly becoming unfamiliar before settling again.
These videos feel like studies of memory, atmosphere, and transformation to me. A reminder that clarity and uncertainty can exist at the same time.
Which frame resonates with you most?
Note: some of these distorted water studies may affect motion sensitive or vertigo prone viewers.
#contemporaryart #videoart #experimentalfilm #newmediaart #iceland
For the past two weeks, I’ve been carrying these circular screen prints through the fjords, black sand beaches, moss fields, and small fishing towns of Northwest Iceland.
The longer I spend here, the more I notice a different relationship to time. Weather moves in and out by the hour, the light barely leaves the sky, and the ocean seems to breathe against the landscape with its own quiet rhythm. Somewhere within that slower pace, the work has started shifting too.
These forms are slowly becoming part of a new artist book exploring water, atmosphere, memory, and release, the gradual process of coming back to one’s self through observation, making, and time spent close to the natural world.
Which image in the series feels most connected to you? 🌊🇮🇸
#artistbook #printmaking #screenprinting #icelandart #contemporaryart @westfjordsresidency
Come join me for a geothermal reset in the Westfjords of Iceland. ♨️🇮🇸
Just an hour outside of town, the drive winds through dramatic mountains, winding fjord roads, crashing ocean waves, and tiny fishing villages that barely feel real. Ending the day in a steaming hot spring surrounded by landscapes like this felt pretty unforgettable.
As an artist, experiences like this remind me how important it is to slow down, observe, and reconnect with the world around us. Iceland continues to surprise and inspire me in the best ways. Grateful to bring you along for the journey.
#iceland #westfjords #hotsprings #artistsoninstagram #travelreels
What surprised me most about Iceland? Honestly, the humanity of it all.
Living in a tiny town of roughly 300 people has reminded me how powerful community, curiosity, and creativity can be. People wave. People help each other. Even the waterfalls feel emotional here somehow.
Lately my days have been filled with sewing artist books by hand, hiking through the fjords, and reflecting on what it means to build a meaningful life through art and connection.
Thanks for all the thoughtful questions and for following along with this residency journey. These books are slowly becoming something really special. 🌊📖🇮🇸
#iceland #artistresidency #contemporaryart #bookarts #artistsoninstagram
A little glimpse into the book making process here in Iceland.
This past week I’ve been developing circular artist book structures, testing mockups, building covers, and working through saddle stitch binding techniques while surrounded by the Westfjords landscape. A lot of problem solving, paper scraps, thread, prototypes, and quiet studio moments.
I’ve always loved how artist books sit somewhere between sculpture, printmaking, and storytelling. They ask you to slow down and hold them differently.
More soon from the residency. @westfjordsresidency
#bookarts #artistbooks #printmaking #iceland #studioprocess
Spending some time learning about Þingeyri, a small town in the Westfjords with a deep connection to fishing and the sea.
Like many places, it faced real challenges as the industry shifted in the 1980s. But there’s something happening here now. A quiet revitalization. Artists, small businesses, and community efforts slowly bringing new life back into the town.
You can feel the history, but also a sense of movement forward.
It’s a reminder that places, like people, can adapt, rebuild, and find new rhythm over time.
If you have any questions about being here, drop them below and I’ll answer in the next video.
#icelandtravel #westfjords #artistresidency #slowtravel #creativeprocess @westfjordsresidency
Interviewed some locals in Iceland today 🐴
Asked how they’re doing… no comment.
Asked for a food review… very grass-forward.
Asked if they’ve seen my art… still waiting.
Very media trained. No PR team.
One blink mid question. Tough crowd.
10/10 energy.
@westfjordsresidency
#iceland #horseoftheday #artistresidency #icelandichorses #icelandtravel
A few days into my Iceland residency @westfjordsresidency and I’ve been getting some great questions.
Thought I’d sit down and answer a few.
If anything comes to mind, drop it below and I’ll get to it next week!
#artistresidency #icelandtravel #contemporaryart #artistlife #creativeprocess
