Danielle Mckinney on Her CULTURED Cover Painting 'Recess'

Danielle Mckinney discusses her painting 'Recess,' featured on the cover of CULTURED's Indulgence issue. The work depicts a woman reclining on a couch under a glowing light, wearing a face mask—a detail Mckinney describes as representing a private ritual of restoration. She explains that the painting emerged from her desire to slip away from the demands of visibility as a mother and woman. Mckinney cites Jungian psychoanalyst James Hollis's idea that adulthood involves recovering the self abandoned to survive. Her figures are not self-portraits but carry emotional interiors of loneliness, sensuality, fatigue, and longing. She notes that her recent paintings have become looser and less resolved, embracing uncertainty. The Indulgence issue also features stories on Amy Adams, Dries Van Noten, Helen Molesworth, Christine Sun Kim, and Mia Khalifa.