Sierra McLean is an Ottawa-based painter with a background in writing and digital illustration. She has a BA in Communications & Writing, often using her research as the foundation for visual work. McLean looks for connection within the disconcertedness of fear without origin. She aims to take the characteristically indescribable humming of isolation, detachment, and fear, and render them tangible. Distorted alien-like figures breed a sense of otherness, underneath a humorous glow that offers something to hold onto. Employing elusive visuals like motion blur and long tunnels, McLean seeks an acceptance of our shared absurd distress, breaking hard on moments of strangeness that beg for a quick escape.

McLean’s work has been placed at the OAG Give to Get auction and shown at the Carleton University Art Gallery. She continues to produce cover art for bands internationally, and show work within the Ottawa arts community, including N10as, Nosy Mag, and Also Cool mag. She is the co-creator and facilitator of CRIT101, a Critique Club hosted at Gallery 101 designed for local visual artists.

The series My Signal Isn’t Very Good visualizes the fragility and paranoia that arise from pre-emptively distrusting those around you. This anticipatory rejection can create an isolation that is both self-imposed and self-fulfilling. Using photographs she’s taken in city centers over the years, McLean builds a whirring world of apprehension. Unease slices through normalcy; the viewer takes the position of the elusive Other -- “Am I one among a group, or am I another thing?”