Christie Morgans, Photographer/Artist
PCC: Tell us a little about yourself.
CM: At a very young age I realized I was an Artist. My teachers in school always encouraged me, even in Elementary school. Drawings, paintings, clay sculptures, murals, any medium really, in order to produce something unique, to give to someone to make them smile. I remember one, Mrs Hall, she told me she wanted to come and see my gallery one day. :) Love good teachers! She held a bulletin board contest annually with all the schools in the district. I was always her Artist, and spent most of my time working on Art, rather than the general studies. I guess Art was always my fun time, and I did get special treatment with the work I produced. We won all the contests for my brief Elementary school days! Fun times. Then I continued to do extra activities....football banner Artist, local Political race illustrations...you name it. I sought it all out.
So I guess I have never known anything but being a natural Artist. I did want to major in Art, but I was discouraged by the lack of potential with income in those days. I went down other tracks, ended up with a degree in Psychology. We moved all over the country and I attended 7 different colleges! The simple act of creating was and has always been what motivates me. And the response of giving joy to someone is still why I am an Artist.
PCC: What do you create? Tell us about your process.
CM: I have been fortunate enough to have traveled all over America, and have seen some of the most extraordinary places. I started taking photographs along the way, and now looking back I wish I had taken even more! I love seeing the beauty everywhere in nature. I started it so I could do paintings from the photos....and that's how it all started in this current direction. When I take a photograph, I see a painting, or at least its potential.
In this fast paced world, I think that sometimes we do not always notice the beauty all around us. I think the Artist job is to remind us all to see the beauty. In the Renaissance times, Artists were held at a higher esteem if they could produce works that might be worthy of the creator. I think in some way, I feel that same drive to produce something as beautiful as what I see in nature. The natural beauty from our creator is perfect. And even in the imperfections of the ordinary, there is beauty to see.
The photography software of today makes it easy to enhance what is already beautiful, and it can resemble a painting. However, for me, I only like to enhance a photographs color or lighting. Beyond that, I would rather get out the paint!
PCC: What else are you passionate about?
I have done just about every medium in Art out there....except I have never done welding (always wanted to though!) I dabbled in silver-smithing in jewelry-making back about 10 years ago though. I always wanted to do more sculpting. I actually still want to go take more studio in sculpting....one day :) Since I was a child I did clay sculptures and really, really loved it. I also was a free lance writer off and on many years back.
All images are the property of Christie Morgans/SouthernComfortArt and may not be duplicated.
