true onion #36
Album cover for Lyra McMahon's "who's watching me?"
EP cover for Lyra McMahon's "fling & cope!"
not dead #29
My name is Lyra McMahon...
I’m a multi-media artist and novelist based in Seattle, creating character-driven novels, expressive visual art, and stories in sound.
My speculative novel, Light-Roasted Spider Fems, is now available to read as a work-in-progress on Patreon, with a new chapter added each month.
Artist's Statement:
I approach my artistic practice as an ongoing process of healing and political resistance as a disabled, mad, and transfeminine person. I connect my art to social justice and political action by redistributing a portion of proceeds from all projects through the Lyra McMahon Social Justice & Political Solidarity Fund.
As a novelist, I’m drawn to the questions that scare me (and that seem to make others uncomfortable too): the subjectivity of memory, the murkiness of consent and how it is shaped by power and circumstance, the harms we’re all complicit in, the ways we turn people into gods, what happens when we cannot push through addiction or illness, relationships formed for the sake of survival and easing pain, and how people who do awful things are ultimately still humans. I am particularly interested in sexuality, gender-based violence, and the conditions disabled, mad, and trans people must survive in under ableism, transphobia, and capitalism. Some of my writing is speculative fiction, which means I explore the world as it is and also try to envision a better world grounded in the pursuit of justice through noncarceral values.
With my visual art, I strive to viscerally express my mad and neurodivergent brain – the vibrant colors of mania, the textures of autistic neurodivergence, the rapid firings and endless connections fueled by ADHD and bipolar disorder. I also seek to capture the shadows of depression, the chaos of hypervigilance, and the process of healing and recovery as a long-term and ongoing endeavor.
I consider my sound art to be experimental. My creative writing often starts as rhythmic poetry, spoken word, songs, and stream of consciousness writing. I share this as sound art as part of that early-stage artistic process — to capture the imagination, playfulness, and experimentation that fuels my creativity.
Multi-media art projects are where I put all of these art forms together.
I continue to expand on the values and processes that form the foundation of my artistic practice on Medium. So far, I have covered topics like money and art, reputation and visibility, sharing work-in-progress, and fear and failure.
Lyra McMahon (she/her) is a chosen artist's name, rooted in my maternal Irish Catholic and Celtic heritage.
Guiding Prayer:
"I arise today through the strength of heaven, light of sun, radiance of moon, splendor of fire, speed of lightning, swiftness of wind, depth of sea, stability of earth, [and] firmness of rock." – Irish Celtic Prayer
Links:
My email is: contact@lyramcmahonart.com
Other Practices:
I work as a public health writer and data analyst under my name, Dielle Lundberg and have written about my background and positionality elsewhere.
I maintain an aligned but distinct artistic practice as an online sex-worker. This art is published under a different name and maintains a clear separation from my work as Lyra McMahon. However, I share this to make clear it is not a secret, to reduce career and safety risks through transparency, and to challenge the stigmatization of sex work in society. I have written elsewhere about my online sex work practice. Half of my net earnings from this work are redistributed to health-related mutual aid and health advocacy efforts for the decriminalization of sex work and improved labor conditions for sex workers. Since sexuality and sex work are themes that I explore in my writing and art as Lyra McMahon, I felt it was relevant to be open about my practice here.