We were lucky to catch up with Courtney Nicole Googe recently and have shared our conversation below.
Courtney Nicole, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.
In the fall of 2022 I completed a year-long project during my time as the Artist-in-Residence at Tarrant County College. It was called “Have a Safe Space (or How to be Vulnerable and Unapologetic)” and it was exhibited at the Carillon Gallery in September of 2022 and the ArtTooth Art Container in January of 2023. I just recently spoke about the project at Mudhouse Residency this past summer, and was able to begin some great conversation.
Having a father in the Navy meant I moved around a lot during my childhood. I was an only child whose most constant companion was my pet cat. Nothing brought me more comfort than sitting in my blanket fort with the current feline, watching cartoons, and making things out of paper.
Over the last few years I began therapy sessions that forced me to embrace parts of my past that were often denied. Depression and anxiety have been persistent shadows for decades, intentionally ignored until they couldn’t be denied any longer. I learned new words like “depersonalization” and “body dysmorphia” which often were results of unresolved trauma.
Alongside these therapy sessions, I was determined to focus on vulnerability in my visual work with great specificity. Global health and social issues have opened the door for discussions about “safe spaces” and people’s need for them. I remembered my blanket forts….. For me they were spaces of comfort, inspiration, and energy.
My work is always autobiographical; by allowing myself to be unguarded in the studio, I hope my work contributes to the current conversation regarding social issues and mental health.
“Have a Safe Space” was a culmination of all of that emotional work I began in 2021. It included oil pastel drawings of spaces in my life where I was comfortable being myself. This is also when I began exploring pattern intentionally, using visual patterns as a metaphor for the patterns and routines we create for ourselves in order to, well, basically get through each day. The patterns were printed on photographs of my body (photographs of myself which forced me to face my body dysmorphia head on.) I included prints of my cat Lascaux, to reference a companion, or a familiar. The focus of the installation is a large “blanket fort” which I sewed with fabric of my own design as well as scraps of clothes with sentimental value. Inside the fort I put a black metal chair. That chair is an invitation for viewers to enter my safe space and allow them time to reflect upon their own. From that chair they could view a video piece which discussed issues of depersonalization, denial, solidarity, and being a survivor (of trauma and mental illness).
My friend and art historian Estelle Voisin, PhD wrote an accompanying essay.
By sharing my story, I had viewers comfortable enough to tell me theirs, and connections were made during these conversations. In my video and exhibition I wanted to make sure I shared resources (websites and phone numbers) for anyone who may not know where to start in their own mental health journey.
Mental Health/Suicide Hotline call 988 or visit https://988lifeline.org/
Women’s Health Organization visit https://www.
National Sexual Assault Hotline call 800.656.4673 or visit https://www.rainn.org/
Eating Disorder Hotline call or text 800.931.2237 or visit https://www.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I consider myself a multidisciplinary artist currently working in Dallas/Ft. Worth. I started my artistic career on the Mississippi Gulf coast until Hurricane Katrina made landfall in 2005, when we moved to Laramie, Wyoming. I received my BFA from the University of Wyoming in 2012 and my MFA from the University of Dallas in 2018.
My personal studio practice begins with drawing and printmaking (primarily relief print processes); then movement or dance, photography, video, and collage (or assemblage) are later integrated into a finished piece. Sometimes a body of work will be exhibited as an installation, allowing viewers to experience my work outside the frame.
I have taught various art classes from high school to the university level since 2017. Those classes have included Printmaking, Digital Media, Contemporary Art History, and Art Appreciation. In the summers I offer printmaking and book arts workshops at Mudhouse Residency in Crete, Greece.
Recently, I have begun to work also as a designer. I create patterns for textile work and have pieces for sale at J Laurie Shoe Boutique in Ocean Springs, Mississippi. These patterns are often inspired by art history and the reduction prints from my personal body of work.
I have exhibited my work all over Dallas-Fort Worth as well as Wyoming, Mississippi, Montana, Alaska, Indiana, Louisiana, and Utah. My work has also been seen in Bangladesh, Australia, the United Kingdom, and Greece.
My prints have been published in several issues of The Hand Magazine between 2016 – 2021.
In 2018 and 2020, I had my first interviews published in Voyage Dallas and Shoutout DFW.
https://voyagedallas.com/
https://shoutoutdfw.com/meet-
Currently I live in Arlington, Texas with my husband, two daughters, and two cats (Lascaux and Winchester).
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
The most rewarding aspect of being an artist or a creative is connecting with a viewer. My work is quite personal, and it can be scary to be that vulnerable in front of an audience; but, like I mentioned before, it is my hope that by sharing my story, it will comfort or encourage the viewer to reflect upon theirs.
There have been multiple times when a complete stranger has come up to me at a reception or a performance and felt safe enough to tell me part of their story. A connection was made through understanding and solidarity. Everyone feels a little bit better when they realize they’re not alone with their experiences or their feelings.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
A lesson that I had to unlearn… not to make art for other people.
My very early art career really focused on making work that I thought I was “supposed to” make, that other people would want me to make. Growing up on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, I was surrounded by regional and folk art from a very young age. We’re talking jazz posters, shrimp boats, pelicans, sunsets on the water, live oak trees covered in moss… For example, Walter Anderson was an artist from the 1900s who lived in Ocean Springs, MS. He was a part of my school curriculum beginning in the 3rd grade, and he was known for his prints and paintings of local wildlife and fairy tales. And while I’m grateful for growing up in such an art-friendly community, it took me many, many years to understand that I didn’t want to make watercolors of crabs and herons.
I had to travel. I had to experience more. I transferred to Wyoming of all places to finish my Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. (They have their own kind of regional art, of course.) I had to study abroad in India. I had to move here to DFW and go to grad school and visit museums and finally see weird contemporary art on a regular basis! I had to study non-traditional art and feminist art and the work of Carolee Schneemann and Adrian Piper and Nick Cave and Ed Ruscha and Chris Burden and Jack Goldstein and Wayne Theibaud and Swoon (Caledonia Curry). I had to read the Surrealist Manifesto and the works of Jack Kerouac and Kurt Vonnegut and French philosopher Gaston Bachelard. I had to visit galleries and have conversations with local artists. I had to attend an artist residency and have discussions with artists from all over the world. I had to pole dance at a party in New York City.
I had to do all that to finally give myself permission to make whatever I wanted, even if people didn’t like it. I had to do all that to realize what I really wanted to say and what I really wanted to do as an artist, and do it unapologetically.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://
courtneynicolegooge.com - Instagram: https://www.
instagram.com/ courtneynicolegooge/ - Facebook: https://www.
facebook.com/ CourtneyNicoleGooge
Image Credits
Jaime Borschuk Gretchen Googe Lindsey Adelman myself