We were lucky to catch up with Monique Porter recently and have shared our conversation below.

Monique, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Are you happier as a creative? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job? Can you talk to us about how you think through these emotions?

Overall, I find being an artist extremely rewarding, especially through photography. It’s through this medium that I get to serve others and share how I see the world.

Although, if we were living in a different world, I would probably become a physical therapist and specialize in working with college athletes. Throughout my childhood, I was extremely athletic and active… until I tore my ACL and broke my meniscus at age 10. That process gave me a new fascination to focus on: bones, medicine, surgery, and recovery. Physical therapy was my favorite part of the week as I watched myself gain strength and recover my range of motion. Maybe it was the self-gratification or the learning curve I got to overcome, but as my dreams of being a college track star slowly died, I found more time to draw and imagine my own little worlds.

Switching to physical therapy as a pre-med major was a thought I had in mind many times while in college. But now that I am on the other side of my art degree, I’m glad I stayed within the art school. I was challenged and stretched, learned immensely about how to market myself and chase after what I wanted, and in all had a great time doing it. A friend once told me that I have officially chosen the creative route, then proceeded to ask me what I’m going to do about it.

Well, I’m just going to keep on keeping on.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Of course! I’m Monique, a photographer and artist who just graduated from the University of Georgia’s Lamar Dodd School of Art. I’ve been seriously chasing my passion of photography since the 8th grade, back when I only had a 3rd generation iPod Touch. Now I work as a full-time photographer at a campus ministry at UGA, leading a group of students as they come to volunteer to photograph events and promotional content. Outside of that, I offer freelance services as a photographer in the Athens, Georgia area.

My favorite thing about being a subject photographer is that I get to create strong relationships with whomever is on the other side of the camera. Through this service, which is how I mainly see myself — as someone who serves–, I get the opportunity to boost morale and confidence in most people that tell me the same thing: “I’m not photogenic.” Unlike some other photographers who enter this from the business perspective to make a lot of money, I enter it with the mindset to create an enjoyable experience, uplift my clients, and capture the details that they don’t notice.

What makes me the most proud of my work is how I have managed to gain the trust of clients to capture such special moments. Again, this is more than just a job!

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

Stop telling young creatives that want to pursue art that they will only amount to “starving artists.” Stop telling prospective students that a degree in art isn’t worth anything. Stop saying that doing something creative isn’t a real job.

Does society not realize that everything we have is because someone decided to be creative? Where do you think your furniture came from? Or your plates and mugs that you eat and drink from? What would you do without Netflix, Disney Plus, or your favorite movie?

Being an artist isn’t just someone who decides to sell paintings or have a studio practice. Art is cinematography that creates your tv shows and movies. Art is the designs behind your advertisements, apps, and visual reading material. Art is the chair you are sitting in right now and the website that you are reading this on.

EVERYTHING that we have and use and enjoy in life is made by an artist — one way or another. Society THRIVES because of us.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

Art isn’t made to be perfect — at least not in my practice. In college, I quickly attached my self-worth as an artist to how well my work turned out and how precisely I made every photo, every screen print, and every rough draft. Getting caught up in the grade, in the assessment, in the realm of perfectionism made me forget how freeing creating is meant to be for me.

It wasn’t until I crashed and burned after spending 20 hours in the studio outside of class working on multiple editions of my work one semester that I realized something was wrong. I remember thinking to myself, “this isn’t fun anymore,” and could see how much joy I lacked in what I was doing. It was a long journey after that to detach myself from perfection and just do things without thought. Something that helped me along the way was remembering the little girl who sat down at the kitchen table with a large stack of printer paper and a 64-count box of crayons. She didn’t think much about color theory or straight lines — she just basked in the simplicity that was doodling. Her imagination knew no bounds. That younger me became my inspiration to get back to enjoying who I was becoming as an artist.

The main point: Don’t forget your why. It’ll take you far.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://monique.22slides.site
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/mochapo

Image Credits
Zahraa Mohsen