We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Maidy Morhous. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Maidy below.

Maidy, appreciate you joining us today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

As an artist most would not think we are risk takers – maybe in the sense that we find it difficult to support ones self through sale of artwork (although I did successfully in my early years, but that is another story for another time). We artists, or those I consider artists, are definitely risk takers, maybe not in the sense of dramatic adventure, life at risk as such, but we definitely to remain fresh and creative must take risks daily – be it our medium, technique, subject matter. I believe that to be a true artist one must not be afraid to experiment, take risk, operate outside their comfort zone. Human nature is that of not taking risks, living in a daily comfort zone…wonder why you get bored…because everything is predictable! As an artist it is the same, although many artists find their niche and a decade later they are still producing the same style, colors, subject matter. Consider Picasso, he had his blue period, Rose period, Cubism, Surrealism…he never stopped experimenting while creating . Were all great? That’s debatable but he was secure enough to at least venture out and try! I am a bronze sculptor, meaning that I create mainly bronze sculptures by the ancient Greek lost wax method. I have classical training in technique, but I love to experiment, which I believe to be the result of my printmaking days. Printmaking can be very unpredictable in that the nitric acid we used to bite the copper plates, depending on temperature of the bath, air temp, adhesion of the resist could give some very unpredictably beautiful results – very hap-chance but very exciting! This led me to try experimenting with aluminum foils and heating of the oil clay and pouring into the foil – the results very very different and exciting. This is just one of the many processes I have tried – some successful, some not!
While my sculptures are at the foundry having molds made and cast into bronze, I have a lot of down time (3 months to be exact). Being a very creative, high energy person I can not just sit around, so I started painting about eight years ago. I started in oil and gravitated to acrylic because of the fast drying quality for contemporary artwork. I find myself experimenting daily, and on already painted canvas that I thought was great the day before, but now feel they could be better, which is typical of an artist, we are never satisfied!
I will tell you that galleries hate for artists to experiment, ie., take risk. You ask why? Because they pick an artist to represent by the artwork they have seen – they are not risk takers, for they want a sure thing and that is the artist to produce a hoard of artwork “just like” what they originally liked. BORING! I can’t fall into that security as an artist. How did it work out? I guess the art critics will have to decide after my demise.
I once wrote and strongly believe this: “The act of creating is an emotional release; it centers one, giving an inner peace which allows us to reflect not only on who we are, but how we think and feel. I realize now, that the pride of being an artist comes not from what one sells, but the inner peace one derives from the act of creating.”

Maidy, 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?

An accomplished printmaker and painter as well as sculptor, Maidy Morhous was born in New York and currently creates out of her studio thirty minutes north of San Diego. Morhous received her Master of Fine Arts degree while studying at Stanley Hayter’s Atelier 17 in Paris in the mid-1970s. Before returning to the States, she traveled to Italy to further her studies in casting techniques at the Fonderia Artistica–Marinelli Foundry in Florence.
Morhous expresses herself through the medium of bronze, which allows her to portray extremes, from the soft flow of water to the harsh asphalt pavement of our world. Her work encompasses the pop art concept of presenting commonplace objects as fine art in a very permanent medium. It is meant to engage viewers and to allow them to contemplate and pull from within, to disengage for a moment from the outside world.

Morhous paints, in acrylic and oil, and continually searches to portray her environment in the world today. Her abstract images pull viewers in while forcing them to question what is being viewed—be it life and one’s existence, the plight of the world.

Maidy Morhous is currently showing internationally in museum exhibitions and galleries; her work can also be found in public and private collections in Japan, England, Europe, Australia and Canada.

As an artist we hope people will come to exhibitions, look us up on Instagram (@MaidyMorhous) and click like if they indeed appreciate the artwork. My legacy is my artwork, and the more people that view and comment makes my world just that much better!

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

Over and over again from friends that are not into the arts I have heard them say;”I can’t draw a thing, you are so lucky to be so talented.” Drawing like surfing, ballet, skiing, cooking, sewing, swimming (you get the idea..like everything) take practice and patience! Drawing is a learned art, sure some are better than others, but that’s with everything in life. The journey of an artist is never straight, but that’s the fun of it! One must learn, and I do think part of it comes from age, that the crooks in the journey are to enjoyed and not create frustration. As an artist, as I’ve continually said, one must continually experiment and change to grow in your art. It’s not easy, nor comfortable but it’s a journey that will culminate in hopefully some great artwork along the way. Another non-artist misunderstanding is that we artists love to be poor, no we love and have a passion, and that passion is to to create, and to create does not always preclude in making a ton of money. This is what they do not understand for many of them have chosen or their parents unrelentingly pushed them into fields of study that they have come to accept. Sad but true, many will live life maybe comfortably, but never feel what a true passion is or how it feels.
It’s all about the journey….life is short and if not spent enjoying or having a passion is is not well spent.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

Waking in the morning excited to get down to my studio to either continue on a piece I am working on or starting…..it is a push pull situation for not all (in fact most) do not turn out on the first try. Be it a sculpture or painting…there is always the rework, but with it brings great satisfaction and the pursuit of new idea and experimentation. I personally, enjoy the process for experimentation tends to create some accidents that are amazing – I seldom sit down and pursue an idea that doesn’t branch off and go a different direction. Experience reminds me to just go with it for it is in these moments that I am at one with the medium and something within takes over and subconsciously starts creating.

“The act of creating is an emotional release; it centers one, giving an inner peace which allows us to reflect not only on who we are, but how we think and feel. I realize now, that the pride of being an artist comes not from what one sells, but the inner peace one derives from the act of creating.”

Contact Info:

• Website: www.maidymorhous.com
• Instagram: @MaidyMorhous
• Facebook: Maidy Morhous
• Linkedin: Maidy Morhous
• Youtube: Maidy Morhous
• Other: Wikipedia – Maidy Morhous

Image Credits
1. Child Proof? 2. 3 Second Rule 3. Hanging Out #3 4. Waffling! 5. Tapped Out! 6. Fortunate? 7. Maidy Morhous 8. Hope * Artwork bronze