We recently connected with Morgan Hobbs and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Morgan thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.
My path to becoming a successful artist and entrepreneur was shaped by parallel experiences in education and service work that taught me valuable lessons about both professional excellence and personal well-being. I worked full-time as a waitress throughout my Bachelor of Fine Arts and part-time on campus during my Master of Fine Arts. At the time, I was concerned that I wasn’t able to have a full educational experience and jealous of my friends who had additional supportive grant funding or parents who were able to help with their expenses. In retrospect, however, that time in my life prepared me for the realities of daily life as an artist and working professional in the field. My waitress job gave me customer service and multi-tasking skills. My campus job in graduate school taught me about work in academia and teed me up for my first arts administrative role at the school after I graduated. My time working with the public at the restaurant and my peers at school also informed my studio practice and kept me connected to broader cultural conversations outside the art world.
Success as a contemporary artist requires an incredibly varied skillset. In addition to formal education that has informed my studio practice and academic writing and research, my employment experiences taught me to write emails clearly and cordially, communicate effectively to individuals and groups, organize my time, research and solve new problems, and collaborate with other artists and working professionals. These essential skills have made it possible for me to grow my personal studio practice and related opportunities while supporting other artists in their endeavors through my business, Structure and Form Artist Services.
My time is precious, and I also learned to be efficient and intentional in my activities. This is an undeniably positive life lesson but also caused me some anxiety and distress over the years. It’s easy to start seeing life as a set of limited resources. Time, money, and meaningful life experiences are all necessary for success, but they can also be in tension with one another. When I was working to make money, I was spending my time. Having meaningful life experiences required a presence of mind that required time and often money. As I worked to make every second of every day useful and productive, the quality of my work began to decline, and I was no longer enjoying the hustle. So, in my late 20s and 30s, I started focusing on my mental health and finding a balance that works for my mind, body and creativity. This required more exercise and time spent with friends. I started taking more days off and getting more sleep. I feared that I would be giving up on my dreams if I didn’t spend every moment in pursuit of my goals, but instead, my work improved and was more rewarding. When I prioritized self-care, I was able to reconnect with the underlying reasons I chose a creative life and entrepreneurship. It’s a fun challenge! I wish I would have addressed my well-being sooner, and I’m encouraged to see that younger generations have more education about the importance of health and wellness.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I’m Morgan Hobbs an artist, curator, educator and business owner based between Kansas City and Philadelphia. My art practice combines oil painting and papier mache sculpture with my interest in historical and prehistoric archaeology and contemporary material culture. I’m specifically interested in ancient and modern symbols, and how symbols are deployed to convey meaning, suggest authority and communicate ideas. Humans in the Upper Paleolithic utilized a variety of marks and notations that are still in use today. While we won’t ever know exactly why these early peoples made markings in caves, rock walls and elsewhere, I love to trace these notations through timelines from the earliest known examples of ochre and charcoal marks from prehistory to video games and computer technologies, hopefully touching time periods in between too.
My work is represented by VSOP Gallery in the Hamptons and Werring Contemporary in Phoenixville, PA. I’ve shown my paintings and sculptures at galleries and museums across the country, including at Ortega y Gasset Projects in Brooklyn; The Front in New Orleans, Satellite Projects in Miami, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Museum and more. I’ve presented my work and writing at Mount Gretna School of Art, Texas A&M International University, Tyler School of Art at Temple University, Pennsylvania College of Art and Design, University of Massachusetts, and the National Conference for Undergraduate Research at Weber State University. In 2012 and 2020, I attended Vermont Studio Center as an Artist in Residence, and in 2020, I was awarded a Hemera Contemplative Fellowship. In 2024, I was on the inaugural 10 Under 40 list through the University of Central Missouri Alumni Awards.
My business, Structure and Form Artist Services, provides artists and arts organizations with a wide range of administrative support, including website development, photo editing, art writing, application preparation, and social media management. I developed these skills through other positions I’ve held, coordinating events and student programs as the Resident Director and Student Life Coordinator, then the Director of Student Services at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, managing digital promotions and more as a co-founder of AUTOMAT Gallery, and curating exhibitions as the Assistant Director at Gross McCleaf Gallery. I have also taught classes and workshops at other colleges and universities, guest curated in galleries across the Mid-Atlantic region, and managed my own art opportunities, applications, exhibitions, and online presence. In the fall of 2024, I also received a certificate of Web Design from Temple University to enhance my technical abilities. I’m constantly looking for opportunities to improve and expand my skillset.
As a visual artist myself, I’m particularly aware of the challenges facing an active contemporary artist. My curatorial background provided me with a strong sense of how to support other artists and present their work in a way that is comfortable, professional, and authentic to them. My clients want to focus on their studio practices and leave the paperwork and online presentation to me. I love to bear that burden for them and share the most unique and important aspects of their work with the world. Community support is imperative to an artist’s success – we can’t be good at *everything*. I’m thrilled to share my skills with integrity and enthusiasm.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
Creativity is an essential part of being human. While I believe in the value of a formal arts education, I also acknowledge that there is something innate about making a unique, visual mark. Even little kids love to throw and smear their food to get a response from their parents. My 85-year old grandmother still does her hair and makeup to go out. My dad drew me and my siblings a picture to explain that another family member was dying of cancer. When I used to substitute teach at an elementary school, the little boys in one class wanted to draw poop and penises when I was trying to lead a landscape painting assignment. I honestly couldn’t help but laugh and think they were 7 year old geniuses for breaking out of the confines of a restrictive assignment.
I love to share my creativity with others and experience others’ visual innovations. I see myself and my practice as a part of a larger story that emerged early in prehistoric times. We’re all a part of a big, shared, ever-evolving network of ideas. There are many examples of drawing and creativity in fields outside the visual arts. Some of us choose to make it our careers but all of us contribute. It’s a really profound group project.
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
I fear that American society has forgotten the value of creative ideas and expression. There needs to be supportive, community-funded programs to send innovators into programs that can nurture their talents. People in every demographic in this country have something to share, but unfortunately, success in creative industries is most connected to where someone lives and how much money their parents have. The groups who are able to refine and share their ideas seem ever fewer and more exclusive.
Along the same lines, we need more public funding for the arts. Opportunities big and small need to be valued for the betterment of our entire society, like free community arts programs, cultural festivals, museum entry and more. Society needs to value elements of silliness, things that aren’t obviously profitable, and/or highly specialized knowledge and theory to lay a foundation for ideas to flourish.
While it’s important that we all have good, paying jobs and that some are trade jobs and entry-level jobs for those who aren’t interested in pursuing an innovative career, providing broad access to creative programs is imperative for the future success of this country. This will require higher taxes on the rich and closing loop holes that allow for legal tax avoidance. Wealth disparity in this country is getting worse, and it’s time to redistribute those resources more equally.
Contact Info:
- Website: morganRhobbs.com & structureandform.art
- Instagram: @morganraquelhobbs & @structureandform.art
- Other: Email: [email protected]
Image Credits
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts / Adrian Cubillas & Gross McCleaf Gallery