M A R K E D

an immersive art exhibition

everyone is invited

YOU ARE MARKEDAn immersive exhibition about the people, moments, questions, and experiences that shape a life.come curious · come as you are.

OPENING NIGHT · FRIDAY · 9 · 11 · 5—10 PM
PUBLIC NIGHT · SATURDAY · 9 · 12 · 5—9 PM
FINAL NIGHT · SUNDAY · 9 · 13 · 5—8 PM

1401 MARKET STREET
REAR ENTRANCE
DOWNTOWN REDDING, CALIFORNIA

ME

Most people who know me call me Jon.For this, I chose Jonathan.It's the name I've always had, but rarely the one I've used. Something about putting my full name on this felt important. Maybe because making this has felt a little like becoming more fully myself.I grew up in a small town in Northern California, in a family where creativity was everywhere. I don't think any of us would have described it that way at the time. We just made things.There were haunted houses and Halloween costumes, school projects that were never allowed to be boring, art supplies and a giant blackboard at my grandma's house, things being built and tinkered with, stories and jokes and poetry. My parents, grandparents, brother and sister are all creative in completely different ways. Some make art. Some build things. Some engineer things. Some teach. All of them, in their own way, showed me that an idea could become something real.I think I inherited a little bit of all of it.Apparently, when I was little, if I couldn't explain something with words, I'd eventually grab a piece of paper and say, Here. Let me just draw it.I still do that.I've never really had one particular creative medium. I'm much more interested in the idea, and then figuring out what form it should take. Give me something that could be made, and my brain immediately starts wondering what else it could become.A work presentation could become an elaborate storytelling experience. Easter eggs could each become tiny individual works of art. A Halloween costume could turn into a weeks-long build. I once decided I could make a croquembouche (a ridiculous tower of cream puffs held together with caramel) for Christmas despite having absolutely no business making one. At one job, I picked up a camera and started filming my coworkers and somehow ended up writing, shooting, and editing an entire episode of The Office.Then we made episode two.That's generally how it goes.I see something and think, I could probably do that.There's an almost absurd confidence I have when it comes to making things. I don't need to know exactly how to do something before I begin. When an idea really gets hold of me, I tend to believe I'll figure out how to make it real.Somehow, I usually do.For most of my adult life, though, I followed a much more conventional path. I built a career. I worked in sales, education, and technology. I've worked for startups and large companies. I've led teams, given presentations, made a lot of cold calls, changed jobs, chased goals, supported my family, and done what most of us do. I've built a life.And creativity kept showing up anyway.For most of my life, creativity appeared whenever life gave it somewhere to go.A project. A presentation. A costume. Something for my kids. Something for someone I loved. Some completely unnecessary idea that suddenly felt very necessary.Creativity was everywhere in my life. It just wasn't at the center of it.Somewhere along the way, I started wondering what would happen if it was.Approaching forty made that question harder to ignore. Not because I wanted a different life. I love the life I have. I just started thinking more seriously about how I wanted to spend it.My wife is Amy, and we have two boys, Maximilian and Kingston. They are, without question, the most important part of my life. A friend once told me that nothing I ever make will be greater than those two boys.I agree.They've also made me think about what we show our kids is worth pursuing. What happens when an idea matters enough to follow it? What happens when you believe you can make something before you know exactly how?Eventually, one of those ideas led here.MARKED is my first art exhibition.Someone recently described it to me as twenty years in the making.Maybe it is.But maybe it's forty.Because this doesn't feel like something that appeared out of nowhere. It feels like all the different ways I've been creative throughout my life finally arrived in the same place.For the first time, creativity isn't something that found a place in the rest of my life.I gave it a place of its own.And it feels like a long time coming.So if my name brought you here, Jon or Jonathan, whether we grew up together, worked beside each other somewhere along the way, shared a meal, crossed paths at a coffee shop, met recently, or have never met at all, I'm genuinely glad you're here.If you're coming to MARKED, thank you.You could spend your time a thousand different ways. I'm honored that you've chosen to spend some of it here.I can't wait to share it with you.— Jonathan

M A R K E D

an immersive art exhibition

A PERSONAL INVITATION

You are personally invited to experience MARKED, an immersive art exhibition I've created.

MARKED is an exploration of the people, moments, questions, and experiences that shape a life, and what it means to discover that your life has been marked all along.

September 11 marks my 40th birthday. I can’t think of a more meaningful way to mark the moment than by sharing it with you.

I would be honored to have you there.

come as you are

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2026
5—10 PM

1401 MARKET STREET
REAR ENTRANCE
DOWNTOWN REDDING, CALIFORNIA

MARKED will also be open
SATURDAY · SEPTEMBER 12 · 5 — 9 PM
SUNDAY · SEPTEMBER 13 · 5 — 8 PM

Jonathan Anthony McKinney

the EPILOGUE

behind the work.

OCTOBER 1, 2026

remind me