We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Mackai Sharp a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Mackai, thank you so much for making time for us. We’ve always admired your ability to take risks and so maybe we can kick things off with a discussion around how you developed your ability to take and bear risk?
When I turned 18 towards the end of the pandemic, I moved across the country and enrolled in flight school. I was in a very existential place and I was deeply afraid I would not make enough to sustain myself as an artist. It was a surreal experience. I learnt a significant amount about myself in those months at school. Things didn’t last long before I started making new work while at school and slowly it became a priority over my studies. I grew increasingly frustrated and once again found myself in a place where I was fearful of an uncertain future. I kept asking myself if my motivations for enrolling in school were true to who I was, or if it was based in fear.
Eventually, I came to the conclusion that nothing made me more uncomfortable than not pursuing my deepest passions until the very end. Shortly after that, I dropped out, moved home and started from scratch. I think that experience was fundamental in shaping the way I move in the world. I never want to be left wondering what could have happened had I explored further, or took that risk or reached out to that person. The thought of not doing became more overwhelming than committing, regardless of the outcome. The more I followed that attitude, the more I felt aligned on the correct path for myself. It was as affirming as it was demystifying to the consequences of risk.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
The focus for me has never shifted. Maybe in the context or the medium or the formatting but when you break it down I am fundamentally just trying to communicate something that words don’t do justice; to leave something more profound. With direction, photography and most recently production.
I’ve directed two separate films to be released in 2024, one was shot in my hometown in Canada and the other was shot in Jamaica with American record label Love Renaissance (LVRN). It’s been the biggest honour to work with so many talented folks internationally. Additionally to those two films, I’ve directed three music videos slated to be released in the first quarter of 2024.
Music is very central to my life and wellbeing. I live to music, I conceptualize to music, I process to music. To be walking that line with my work; between the visual and the musical, is what is most important to me.
It was crucial for me to take a step back for the last month to live and to process the peaks and valleys of the last 11 months leading up to 2024. My first project of the new year deals with the most recent experiences of my life and I begin production in January. I hope to only grow sustainably and find my life’s balance in the process. I leave 2023 grateful for all that it has taught me and for all the incredible work I was able to be apart of.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
I think anybody working on anything ever can feel a bit of internal resistance taking something from an idea to a project to something that is published. But when I tell you how important it is to actually follow through, to hold onto your ideas and execute them; it is paramount. You get into a rhythm and each time you complete something and put it out into the world it gets a little less horrifying.
With follow through comes taking yourself seriously, which feels stupid sometimes. And I don’t mean having an ego about it, more so being able to identify yourself in relation to your work. Whether that is going from someone who paints to a painter, or someone who takes pictures to a photographer. The labels are irrelevant, it’s just the state of mind. For me, contextualizing myself within my work made things make sense.
Most importantly, I would be nothing without my people. It is truly about the energy that you surround yourself with. Being around other people who want similar things for themselves, who want to bounce things off each other, it changes everything. It makes things less scary, and more possible.
Alright, so before we go we want to ask you to take a moment to reflect and share what you think you would do if you somehow knew you only had a decade of life left?
I want to preface this by saying I live for my work; but there was a point this year where I realized I wasn’t really living my LIFE, more so floating around the place with rigid tunnel vision. I had my heart broken last month, and that debilitating pain and confusion knocked me off my feet. Sitting in those emotions was probably the first moment since before the pandemic I took a second to do nothing and not immediately advance to the next and the next and the next…
It has honestly been terrifying; I don’t think I realized the true capacity and depth of emotions I could experience until I was fully enveloped within them. So i’ve been treading water so to speak. And it has been interesting trying to balance holding space for my soul to heal whilst also having an abundance of clarity to be self critical; trying to arrive at a place where those two things aren’t mutually exclusive.
Because so much of my work is rooted in my own experiences, it requires me to reflect upon them to discover what it is i’m trying to say. And this chapter of unrequited love has arguably been the toughest thing for me to digest.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.mackaisharp.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mackaisharp/
Image Credits
Kaleeka Pather, Halle Jean March, Brea Wilson, Drew Alabi
