Interview with October Youth Artist Emma Morrison
This Month’s Youth Artist is Emma Morrison, whose thought-provoking and engaging pieces are on display through October.
In an interview with us, Emma discusses the inspiration behind her current series of pieces, creative influences, what she’s learned in preparing for her show, and more!
Emma will be having an opening on Thursday, October 12th from 6-8pm.
In your artist bio, you state that when you are "currently working on a series of works based around the chaos of airports, departures, and arrivals." Can you tell us a bit more about what has inspired this focus?
This year I’m taking Advanced Placement Drawing, which is a very fancy way of saying that I get to pick a concentration and work on it all year rather than your typical art class assignments. I’ve known for a while that I wanted to take this class so I’d been thinking about a topic that I could really focus on, and I was having trouble deciding when my family and I had a long layover on our way back from Minneapolis last spring. I was doing some figure drawing to pass the time when I realized that the drawings I was doing had a little extra something. I began to notice that airports are really high emotion places; I saw people waiting with deep anxiety, laughing instead of worrying about whether the wheelchair would fit on the plane. I saw kids running through the terminal, couples sitting next to each other in complete peace, and I started to think. I realized that there are so many items, environments, spaces, and feelings that are completely unique to airports. I got really excited about the idea of exploring a space that’s typically seen as mundane in new ways, so I decided to focus on airports in my portfolio this year.
Who and what have been your most significant creative influences?
When it comes down to it, I think I’m most influenced by my family. Neither of my parents would tell you that they’re artists, but they’re both deeply creative people. My mom majored in art history and my dad dabbles in improv comedy and creative writing. The paintings I make are often inspired by stories of when they were younger, or the music of my childhood that’s ultimately their favorites. Outside of this, I’m always the most inspired when I’m looking at other people’s art. I’m obsessed with museums and concerts and bookstores because of the creativity that exists in those spaces. I love art class because my amazing, talented friends make art that changes the way I think. I guess mostly I’m influenced by other people.
One of your pieces depicts two figures above the caption, "Always an angel, never a god." What are your thoughts behind this piece and how did you create it?
I love this piece! One of my favorite bands, boygenius, was coming to Boston last summer and my whole family was absolutely geeking out. My sister requested that I make us matching T-shirts, but being the crazy person that I am I knew that I couldn’t just go ham with a Sharpie. I decided that I wanted to do some block printing, which I hadn’t done in a while, and certainly not with this much detail. The phrase “always an angel, never a god” is actually a lyric from a boygenius song called “Not Strong Enough.” As a serial perfectionist/people pleaser, the phrase always resonated with me so I knew I wanted to incorporate it into the piece. I ended up making a whole bunch of prints and I’m absolutely obsessed with them.
If there is one takeaway you would like people to know when viewing your work, what is it and why?
Usually in my work, I put far less thought into the idea than I put into the process. Many would call this a “problem” — thinking that art without some super profound meaning is pointless. But for me, art is less of an outlet for my problems and more of a space to play. I love experimenting with the way that paint lays on a surface, or what would happen if I put a panel of slides into a pair of jeans. So, I don’t think I even have a takeaway from my work. It’s all about the way that making it feels. I guess I just hope that my pieces make people feel something.
How did you first learn about The Collaborative and what have you learned in the process of preparing for your opening?
I heard about this incredible opportunity from one of my middle school art teachers, Melanie Medeiros. She’s a wonderful teacher and an even greater mentor. I was picking up my sister and she shouted “do you want your work in a gallery” across the parking lot and of course I said yes. She sent me the application and here we are! Preparing for the show was a really weird process because it forced me to look back at some older pieces. I tend to get the “I hate this, burn it all” feeling towards the end of the creative process, so most finished pieces get shoved in the corner of my closet once they’re done. But in coming back to it, I realized that some of the pieces that I hated were actually not too shabby. I made some small alterations, but overall I was really happy with the quality of my work. It was a cool opportunity to look back and reflect on the work I’ve done for all of high school, and to think about the work I might do next.
