We were lucky to catch up with Micah Cash recently and have shared our conversation below.
Micah, appreciate you joining us today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.
The first two decades of my artistic life revolved around painting – using it to communicate, to process my experiences, and to encapsulate complicated narratives and emotions onto paper or canvas. I didn’t want to do anything else. Yet, in 2013, I was making reference photographs for a series of new paintings, and was at a loss as to how I could incorporate what I was experiencing through the painting process. I could not conceptualize how to incorporate the nuance in the landscape and the metaphors in the architecture that I was seeing, not to mention the represented layers of history and political struggle in the narratives I wanted to capture. It seemed futile, but I was heavily invested in the content and narrative.
In a moment of desperation, I looked down at the camera I was holding and realized that I was trying too hard. Don’t force the story into a creative process that it doesn’t naturally fit within. Take a risk and do it differently. So I made my first conscious photograph – an image that was meant to exist as a complete artistic statement. Not as a record, or as reference for other things, but as a true work of art.
Ten years later, photography is my main creative process, and I never dreamed or intended for that to happen.
Micah, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I’m a visual artist who uses the visual languages of landscape and architecture to talk about who we are as a society. History, economics, and the struggles of daily life are explored through focused projects across media, including photography, painting, printmaking, drawing, and installation. I’ve published two photography books, Waffle House Vistas, and Dangerous Waters: A Photo Essay on the Tennessee Valley Authority, and routinely create zines and artist books as a way to disseminate my work and tell stories.
My practice has shifted toward engagement and dissemination – finding ways to get my work into the hands of people who want to engage with it, including low cost ways for collectors to purchase prints, books, and zines.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
I have always worked in arts nonprofits or as contingent faculty in higher education as a means to supplement my artistic career and projects. In 2021, my arts nonprofit job became incompatible with my artistic work – my next book was scheduled for publication and I needed time to make the work. So I left my 9-5 job and become an arts nonprofit coach, surrounding myself with colleagues that understand my need to make work.
Now, I can meet with clients while on the road, and have the freedom to structure my time for creative pursuits while making a difference and helping arts nonprofits fulfill their missions. I’m extremely proud of this side of my professional identity, and I wouldn’t be able to make the kind of art I like to make without it.
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?
I have to make art. I see things a different way and I process my experiences and curiosities through the creative process. Most people don’t realize that we artists need to make work – we can’t turn it off. It is a part of us.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.micahcash.com
- Instagram: @micahcash
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/micahcash
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/micahwcash/
- Twitter: @micahcash