Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Morgan Adler. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Morgan, appreciate you joining us today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?
Learning and understanding how to paint are, from my experience, two very different things. I don’t remember the first time I picked up a paintbrush, but I can guess it was probably before I could tie my own shoes. I have always enjoyed creating, but it wasn’t until my time at university that I learned the techniques and theories behind building a unique visual language. Learning the basics of design, color, light, and form were the building blocks I needed to start understanding how to make an image. I spent hours studying materials, techniques, and art history, but after all that research, the best teacher was experience. There were times I’d get very frustrated with myself because the image that I made didn’t match the version I had envisioned. It took hours of practice, mistakes, and “happy accidents” to finally connect what my eyes were seeing, to what my brain knew, and finally, to what my hand recorded.
Unfortunately, I’m not sure that there is a way to speed up the process of learning how to paint. To me, painting is a life-long journey, a culmination of knowledge, experience, and trust in one’s abilities. My biggest obstacle has been apprehensiveness. It is only when I let myself relax and trust my hand that I enjoy the process and make a successful painting. Working abstractly, as I do, can be particularly freeing because the artist gets to decide which “rules” to break and which ones to follow. These decisions blend with your artistic instinct, and ultimately create your own unique visual language. Along the way you’ll realize that you learned how to paint, but at that point you’ll know too much and are cursed with never being 100% satisfied. So you make another painting, and another, and another….
Morgan, 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?
My name is Morgan Adler. I grew up lakeside in Cleveland, Ohio as an only child to a single mother. I spent my childhood traveling the country via roadtrips, attending art classes, filling my spare time with crafts, and nurturing a sense of independence. I always knew I wanted to be an artist, although it was a difficult decision to make with any confidence that my future would be financially secure. I received my Bachelors of Fine Arts degree in Painting at Savannah College of Art and Design in 2018 and have been working as a full-time artist ever since.
Some of my biggest inspiration comes from traveling and studying the relationship between nature and the human experience. I have been to Australia, South America, Alaska, Antarctica, and attended an extremely influential artist residency in the Dutch countryside.
My painting practice approaches landscapes with an abstract use of space, color, and texture. I create worlds that are not based in any recognizable reality, but rather a visual representation of the intangible space inside our minds. My paintings use brushstrokes, splatters, and other gestural marks to indicate an emotional state. I build landscapes that imply harsh weather patterns or other nature-based phenomena on the horizon. There is a hypnotic fluidity that occurs during my process of working with extremely thinned paint, offering a tempting refuge of captivating visuals that can disorient the viewer and prompt a new way of understanding space. I paint to question the barrier between physical and emotional landscapes, creating expressive narratives that relate to my experience, identity, and relationship to the material. But like nature, it is always shifting and reinventing.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
One of the most satisfying aspects of creating and sharing my art is the emotional connection I create with individuals that view and find meaningful sentiments in my work. Art can provide a profound experience when the limits of language cause a failure to communicate, and as someone who has never been great with words, sharing my work provides an opportunity to feel fully understood. The process of creating art throughout the years also gives me the opportunity to look back at my life through a visual diary that records an amalgamation of emotions, experiences, and places I’ve been.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
A situation that comes to mind when thinking about resilience, is surviving the Covid-19 pandemic. In the late winter of 2020 I was only about one year into my post-graduate career journey. I had a solo exhibition open March 5th, and by the 13th the whole country was shutdown. I had exhibitions, projects, and travel plans that were put on indefinite holds and others were outright cancelled. I remember having very little optimism that my chosen career path was ever going to be a viable option again and, wallowing in misery, felt like art was the last thing people would care about during a global catastrophe. My mom, who has always been my biggest supporter, encouraged me to keep making work and find innovative ways to continue sharing my passion. I utilized social media to maintain and foster a new audience for my art. I started posting works in progress and videos on my painting process, and to my surprise, acquired more visibility than before. During this time, everyone seemed to need a way to connect and I found that other artists were looking to support and be supported by their community despite the circumstances. I looked for ways to make my art accessible at a variety of different price points, turning original paintings into prints, wearable garments, and even Christmas ornaments. I started licensing my artwork for commercial use, and in one instance, created designs that were featured on the siding of transportation vehicles for my alma mater, SCAD. Overtime, I began to reclaim the momentum I had before the pandemic, finding gallery representation, opening an online shop, and completing interviews in print and podcast form. Although the shutdown presented a number of unforeseeable challenges, it taught me perseverance and reminded me that creativity must not be limited to my canvas.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.morganadler.com
- Instagram: @m0rgtr0n
Image Credits
Emma Schutte (portrait) Savannah College of Art and Design (bus)