Today we’d like to introduce you to Keelan Mcmorrow
Keelan, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I’m an artist, and I’ve been painting, drawing, and making stuff since I was first able to pick up a crayon. Professionally, I’ve been at it since my mid-twenties. My primary focus is always my studio work, but I’ll tackle just about any project I’m hired to do that’s relevant to my skillset and aesthetic sensibilities. Lately I’ve been doing more murals, for example, than in the past. Whatever I’m painting, I live for it, and I’m very hard on myself when I’m not happy with what I’m working on, so the work has to correspond with my overall vision.
Up until relatively recently, I was heavily involved in making music as well. I’ve been in a number of bands, did the touring thing, put out records and so on. Punk rock is still very much a part of my community and my identity, more so probably than the art world – as artists tend to focus on their individual egos and ambitions, and being a self-taught painter, I never drank the pretentious Kool-Aid of academia and I’ve never really felt that I fit in with whatever the art world actually is… I guess it’s really a lot of things. For me, art is something I do, something I’ve always done and will continue to do for as long as I’m able, and for whatever reason that makes it hard to identify with others because it’s so distinctly personal. It’s not an identity I’ve assumed in order to relate to other people or find a social niche, and it’s not something I can set aside or put down. It’s just what I do, what I live for, and it’s what keeps me going. I’m fundamentally working class at my core, and so my work ethic is very much tied up in my art. To put it simply, art is work, and an artist is someone whose work has become their personal language by way of intensity, focus, and a developed skillset. That’s all I’m really doing and it’s all I really am.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Definitely not a smooth road, and I’m not sure how it could’ve ever been otherwise. All the expected obstacles aside, just the sheer act of creating art is fraught with challenges. You might have a vision, but you have to figure out how to paint it, how to take it out of your brain and put it on to paper or canvas. You have to learn to paint by painting constantly, consistently, and by challenging yourself along the way. In order to develop, you have to always be doing better than before, and there are countless low points in store for anyone adopting this mindset. But again, I think that’s the essence of art, to always be working, striving for that thing that approaches perfection but never really is, it’s never really good enough. And so you just keep pushing, and it’s always a challenge, but it’s a challenge to be embraced.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
Well, I suppose my style of painting is unique. I’ve been told as much over the years, and it’s a point of pride for me that my work looks like, well, my own. Nothing comes out of a void, of course. But the last thing I ever want to do is be derivative or make work that clearly owes some other artist a debt, or even worse, an explanation…
So I guess that I specialize in Keelan McMorrow paintings? I’m not sure how else to describe what that means. There are usually elements of realism in my work, whether figurative, portrait-based, or whatever, but I’m always deconstructing my paintings into a layered fresco of abstraction that just makes sense to me.
Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
Chicago has a lot going for it, especially when the weather is nice. But I probably like its history the best. My family has some of its own history here, putting roots down in the city after immigrating here in the early 20th century. One of my great-granduncles was a labor leader, another one ran a speakeasy, and his sister married a New Deal politician who worked for the mayor. I love living in the city where all of that happened and so much more. I love Chicago’s architecture, and I love its no-nonsense Midwest attitude. You can find real people here. We’re also the best food city in America. Sorry, everywhere else.
But yeah, I think Chicago could stand to reclaim some of that brash, no B.S. confidence that it became legendary for in the old days. Especially pertaining to art and the art world, our city deserves better than it’s allowed itself. We built the only World’s Fair worth remembering, we invented the skyscraper, and we should be a destination art city that rivals New York and Los Angeles. There are amazing artists in Chicago, but I want to see us dominate like the Bulls in the 1990s. I’d also like to see the Bulls playing today like they did in the 1990s. Go Bears! But really I don’t care about sports.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.keelanmcmorrow.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/keelanmcmorrow
