Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Moriah Mylod. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Moriah thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

My story as an artist is taking one risk after the other, but there is one particular story in mind that spun my life in a whole new trajectory. While living in Phoenix, AZ at the age of 19, I was in a near-fatal car accident that turned my life upside down. I suffered from severe injuries, including a Traumatic Brain Injury and a rare, debilitating nerve condition called Trigeminal Neuralgia. I had to drop out of college, give up my job, and put my life on hold. Recovery was brutal…some days I couldn’t even tolerate light, sound, or movement without excruciating pain. I spent many days even weeks in a dark room. Art became my only refuge. In the corner of my bedroom, I set up a makeshift studio with a discarded computer chair and a cheap fold-out table from God knows where. One painting I created after my accident was a watercolor painting I made titled, “Projection of a Lighthouse.” It depicts a woman, wide-eyed standing on a rock in the middle of the ocean at night holding the comfort of her oversized bunny and in the distance a lighthouse projects glimmers of her future in shapes of yellow flowers growing out from the depths of the sea. I had no reference photo just an image within my mind’s eye. This painting became a symbol of hope in a time when I couldn’t see much of any.

After some time and a great deal of personal challenges, I took the biggest risk of my life and said yes to the unknown. I accepted an offer from my estranged biological father, a recovering alcoholic who achieved so much through his recovery to lend support to me. I had been cut off from my father at the age of 5 and now after nearly 20 years, he invited me to move across the country to my initial home state of New Jersey and live with him, so he could help me go back to school. I was desperate and I felt like I had nothing to lose at the point. The desert wells were drying up and the concrete dystopia was walling me in. That move led to a major breakdown and not to sound cliché but a breakthrough. My dad provided stability like I never had in my life and art became my lifeline. With the many boxes of canvas he bought me, I filled my basement studio with raw, honest paintings. That risk, leaving everything I knew behind was the best choice I have ever made in my life because it led me to so many good things after. Life continued to surprise me again, I met the love of my life, my now husband in only a matter of a few months after moving back to NJ and reconnected with family. I even went back to college, earning a Masters Degree in Art Therapy at Cedar Crest College. I continue to pursue a path of healing to help not only myself, but to share this love with others through my art practice.

Moriah , 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?

I am a Visual Artist working primarily in mixed media painting and interdisciplinary art in my home studio “Birds in The Attic” in Phillipsburg, NJ, with my loving husband and our little girl in the shape of a very fluffy dog. Currently, I have been focusing primarily on painting using oils, water-soluble materials like acrylic paint, artist crayons, and textural grounds to create a foundation and building on layers through the use of mark making and applying various materials with charcoal, spray paint, colored pencils, and then adding more layers. The process for me is one of discovery, I like to apply most of my paintings intuitively and allow the meaning to unfold or to bide within the mystery of them. I hope the viewer will discover something new each they look at my paintings.
My subject matter usually represent the humanness found in personal symbolism from dreams, memory, and past experiences that often represent themselves in nature (which being in nature is something I am always seeking) or inner landscapes blending the figurative world with the abstracted world. There is often a metaphor there to read in a stanza, my paintings too hold a kind of poetry that I compose with the physical materials and all the materials in my life. Spending time in my studio practice allows me to expand myself to give me space to think. Art is cathartic and brings me fulfillment like nearly nothing else in life. It’s strange to say to others unless they know it. Also, community is a large part of how I operate to be among other artists, to help support them in whatever way suited, whether it is just listening, asking questions, collaborating or encouraging them. I am also part of a faith community and as I grow older, I find how fundamental it is for me to go beyond the island of my studio and to be among people who are building in a sense a kind of field of dreams with me.

What sets me apart? While studying psychology in college we learned that making art is sublimation which is one of many defense mechanisms. Perhaps that’s one of the reasons I have never stopped making art through so many difficulties in life and even as I have questioned myself whether it is good or not because it didn’t matter to me for so many years whether it was good, it was what spoke to me and it was catharsis from the painful moments. It felt like I had a way to communicate when words and actions weren’t sufficient enough. I thank God art exists and it is something I am continually growing in and like many others it is an ever-evolving way of life for me. It’s truly a fundamental way of being in the world and it is a joy to share it in any capacity.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I eventually earned a Master’s in Art Therapy – one of the hardest things I’ve ever accomplished because of the roadblocks placed in my way. I triumphed with stubborn perseverance, a theme of strength in my life, which seems to be a trait that comes from my dad’s side. The same summer I graduated, I also got married. I worked as an art therapist for about a decade, helping others use creativity to heal, just as it had healed me.

At the same time, a dream was slipping away… one I had silently held onto for years. My husband and I couldn’t have children, and as that reality set in, I was also facing a chronic health condition. I felt completely lost. Grief and depression took hold of me like a damp wet blanket. The future felt like a vast, empty space and I couldn’t see past that despite so many blessings bestowed upon me. But one day, my husband encouraged me to turn what would have been our “nursery” into a studio. At first, it felt like admitting this chapter was over, but in reality, it was turning over a new leaf when I stepped into that space to see my husband had brought my easel and art supplies on the table with the warm, inviting light from the window, I felt something stir in me again. Ultimately, the room was transfomed into a cozy studio. The drought was over. I started painting again, but with a new purpose. I challenged myself with art courses, forcing myself to try forms of painting I had never explored. Slowly, my work evolved. People started noticing and responding. I realized soon after that serving simply as an “artist” and not “insert other career here” is what I was designed for.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The most rewarding aspect of being an artist is when I see a painting completed in my studio. It is an absolute miracle how any painting gets done. The glory of God is woven in every brushstroke, in every piece and victory in my life. Making art as a professional isn’t just a pipe dream – it’s part of my reality. In some ways I do not feel like I have a choice, I either make art with most of my time or wither. Even as I work side jobs to support my studio practice, it’s worth the hardship at times and detours to be in those moments because if it gets me back to painting and being present in the beauty of this world, then that is worth it. Also, I have mentioned that community is a big part of how I operate. I truly love working with other hardworking artists, just being in their presence and seeing how this hope is also real in their lives. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that it is rewarding to exhibit my work to the public, to be commissioned for a work and help hang it in someone’s house or to celebrate the arts with those who truly get it. If anyone takes anything out of this I hope that they can remember that sense of purpose is waiting for you in the corner of a room, in a basement studio, or in the warmth of a space you finally claim as your own. Start somewhere, a foot in front of the other, the next right thing forward – and watch the miracle unfold.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.moriahmylod.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/birdsintheattics
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/moriah.mylod.daggett/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/moriah-mylod-daggett-maat-atr-55547154/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@moriahmylod

Image Credits

Portraits taken by Kailey Atkinson, 2025.