Vancouver Voices: Mallory Lupick

Quitting medicine’s MCAT exam was the best thing for Mallory Lupick to discover her calling as an artist. A graphic designer who works both on paper and digitally, Lupick sees the huge potential of NFTs in the art world to help creators retain and enforce their ownership, and gain the recognition that’s often missing for early-stage artists. A music enthusiast, Lupick currently focuses on creating visuals for performers and bands.

You're a graphic designer and an artist. How has that creative journey been for you? 

It’s something I've been thinking about a lot lately actually, because I've been trying to narrow down where my passion is and where I want to be working within those fields. It has me thinking about how I felt when I was younger, and I'm trying to return to that state - of doing what I love to do, versus what I feel like I should be doing. 

I've been thinking back  to when I was little and I was always doing different arts and crafts. But recently, I've been moving into working and creating visuals for musicians specifically, and it’s work that I love to do. Someone asked me this question the other day and it jogged a memory that I had in high school, where I used to listen to one album over and over again  (which I still do), and I would paint something to it. I would create a painting for an album, essentially, and then I gave them all away to my friends.

How has your life and work led you to this point?
It seems like weird little seeds have been planted throughout my entire life, and they have been slowly growing.  After high school  I did a Biology degree, which I have probably used in a lot of ways that I don’t even know, but I never really worked in that field. I ended up running a business for a few years, but I just wasn’t happy and I realized that what I love to do is be creative.

I wanted to be a doctor at one point, but when I started studying for the MCATs I realized that none of that was what I wanted to do. The day that I decided to cancel my MCAT exam, it was one of the only days in my life that I could feel dark clouds parting, like a weight off my shoulder. Trying to force a career or a relationship that you deep down you know isn't right? It's like the feeling of swimming upstream, instead of going with the flow.


How have you found the creative community in Vancouver? 

I have my creative community here that I've slowly built. I would say that it is people who I've been reconnecting with and our paths are re-crossing. I think that it’s one of those things where you need to find yourself on the right path. 

Previously, I haven't really had a strong creative community here, but I feel that's what I would say I’m successfully building right now. Check back in six months and I'll tell you about the community that I’ve built because it seems to be growing quickly. 

How do you think the art and tech communities could merge?

I think that there's a lot of ways that art and tech can enhance each other. As a graphic artist, I work on paper, but I also work digitally. Digital artists have their work stolen all the time because there's nothing to protect it. So obviously it feels like the world is talking about NFTs. It’s a huge step for artists and for graphic artists to be able to stick to their own claim and get their own recognition. I think that recognition has been missing. 

Every time a new technology emerges, there's an artist who's going to find a way to use it with a new medium, or a new tool. On the flip side, there's always new technology and it's going to take an artist to make it pretty. It’s cool because it's really useful to make it beautiful and aesthetically pleasing.  If there’s a piece of technology that I want in my house, as someone who's so visually inclined - I won't buy something if it's not an aesthetic fit. 

In what ways to art and tech overlap?

It's something that I didn't even start thinking about until a month ago. In my experience I don't really see them overlap. Maybe it's just something I haven't seen yet, but I don't really see them collaborate. I'm sure there's a limitless number of possibilities that aren't being tapped into and just  because I haven't seen a specific collaboration doesn't mean it can’t exist. 

It would be cool for someone like me to show up in an event where there's like all these examples of things people are doing. And like I'm picturing something like where you can try out the technology and see how it works. As an artist, if you're not seeing it or interacting with it, you don't know what exists. So it doesn't have an impact on your life.

Artwork / Mallory Lupick

How do you navigate your creative journey as a woman?

I definitely think about it in the sense that I worry - well, worry is the wrong word. I think I am conscious because I don't necessarily think it's a negative thing. 

I think about the nature of my work. Especially when drawing women. I think about how I depict women and how that intersects with societal beauty standards. I've drawn quite a few friends actually, which has been such a cool, fun experience. So many of them have told me that they are nervous coming in, but coming out they feel so empowered.

One thing I've loved about all the art I've ever made is that it all means something different for different people. I have been thinking about  whether or not my work appears feminine or masculine, and whether that appeals to a different audience. And I really feel like I can't make my work something it's not. It's a thought that I just let float away because it doesn't feel helpful for me to take my work and say I need to make it more masculine to appeal to a different audience.