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ARTS
LEIGH MORGAN
interview by Adam Corona for ENVY
Adam: “Hi, Morgan, thanks so much for joining me today. Would you mind starting us off by telling us a little bit about yourself and your artistic practice?”
Morgan Leigh: “My name is Morgan Leigh, and I live in Phoenix, Arizona. A majority of the time I work in a place between sculpture and painting, but occasionally pull from my background in fashion and photography when an idea calls for it. At the root of my practice is experimentation.”
Adam: “So your artist statement mentions Millions Ranch and deepening your understanding of the land both physically and spiritually. Can you tell us a little bit about Millions Ranch and describe a specific experience on the ranch that significantly shifted your perspective or has influenced your work?”
Morgan Leigh: “Yeah, Millions Ranch is located in Northeast Arizona, and it's right on the edge of Petrified National Forest, and I kind of accidentally stumbled on that location just on a weekend trip I was taking and immediately... felt really drawn to the land and knew I wanted to spend more time there.
So... having land out there and spending... a few years being out there by myself in a really intimate and quiet way allowed me to do a lot of deep healing work as well as, really ground into... the energy and purpose behind the work that I wanted to make.
So I think it was a combination of the idea of retreat and ... reflection, mixed with this really big library of materials, through different soils and elements and bones and just things that I have seen represented in a lot of “Western art” or land art.
But I had never myself had the chance to truly commune with and build a relationship with those materials.
Adam: “Is there a specific piece that you feel like that manifested the most in your exhibition, Teething?”
Morgan Leigh: “The largest piece in that show “held by two devils” was my first ... I had done some performance pieces out at Millions, but that was my first piece that I made with the soil from Millions, and that was very intentional and even to get the certain tones and everything, I have to sift through and collect and the intentional in the shades.
And that was the first time I had used the... practice of rubbing the soil into the foam and staining it in that way, which is seen throughout the show. But it began with that piece. So that feels like a pivotal one that also felt like a collaboration between myself and the land.
That one is from 2023, but even my pieces from this year use soil from Millions as well.”
Adam: “In Teething, you recast the gallery as an interior landscape where emotional and physical growing pains take material form. How did you approach the curation and spatial arrangement in the exhibition to evoke this sense of becoming?”
Morgan Leigh: “It was an interesting process because it's the first time that I had made work or planned for work to be in a space I hadn't been in.
And I created most of that show just in my small apartment, knowing that it would ultimately end up in that gallery and in Miami.
And it was the first time that any of my work was going to an environment so far away, and I was lucky that Catherine, who owns Queue, had the same intention I did of how to allow for that “desert energy” and breath to be experienced there. So we had a lot of conversations about how that would translate and how even viewing the work in a humid environment or in this place that was so far from the work, how it could inform or heighten the strength of the pieces. And it was really beautiful to go and see how much the essence of Arizona and being here really did translate, and it did create kind of a stark contrast that I think was hard to ignore.”
Adam: “What role do you think the specific materials play in conveying those themes?”
Morgan Leigh: “I mean, I think definitely the soil because it just is so innately from the place that I'm making work.
And I think... the show kind of proved that to be true as well.
And then... I think I'm very careful when I do bring in tones that aren't natural, like in this show, I used a lot of house paint and... leather, but I think I am always drawing inspiration from very specific memories that involve tone and color. So it all kind of becomes from the same place. They are always in conversation with each other.”
Adam: “The exhibition highlights themes of motherhood and the rugged terrain of grief. How do you see these themes intertwining in your work? And can you share an example of a piece where this intersection is particularly evident?”
Morgan Leigh: “I think for me with this show... maybe more than motherhood even, is this idea of being domestic, and motherhood does fall into that quite a bit.
I think I have just had this internal battle for years of trying to merge together my grief, and what's led me to where I am today. Being a mother, being an artist, wanting more for myself, and kind of the frustrations of not being there yet, and like mistakes along the way. And I, I have one piece, we might have to insert the title because I'm not going to remember it right now, it's an all-white piece.
And with that one, I used foam, leather, and house paint. It was the last piece that I made for this show.
And for me, it really does embody that kind of struggle and tension that I feel between all of those aspects of myself and my experience.
Adam: “You've spoken about the pure emptiness of the desert, allowing new forms of understanding to surface. How has living and working in Arizona, particularly the Sonoran Desert, influenced your artistic process and the materials you choose?”
Morgan Leigh: I mean, I think there's something interesting that's happened for me where ideally I would be out living off the grid in the high desert. All year.
But as a mother and someone who's also a working artist, I don't have that luxury. So I think... This idea of having these weekends and these... “retreats” into the emptiness of the desert and then having to come back and live a very real city life that is so full of ... everything that's going on in our modern world, and the weight of that and the noise and the static of it all. And having that balance between being in that and then being in that vast emptiness has given me this greater appreciation for the times I do get to have that.
And that tension kind of, in the same way of the tension we talked about before has informed so much.
And I think that's, maybe, the biggest visual... through line in my work right now. There's tension kind of in every single piece I make.”
Adam: “I feel like tension is, I think that's probably one of the best words to describe your work that I feel when I look at it.
And I hadn't thought about the word tension like fully before to describe it. I like that.
In a recent interview, you mentioned and you described the intense daily cycle of the Petrified Forest. How does this understanding of time and minimalism translate into your art? And what do you hope viewers take away from experiencing your work in relation to those things?”
Morgan Leigh: “I think the ideas of perspective and scale.
I think it's easy to... get caught up in that same static I spoke to earlier.
And to be in a place like Millions and to experience very desolate nature, I think it... recalibrates and makes you understand the layers of perception that we live within.
And I think it's obviously so important to have an awareness, an ability to live in and understand very real human problems and evils and stresses and all these things, and there's this whole other perspective that is about the most simple things and the things that have been here so long before humans and so long before anything we can put words to.
And I think when you can and begin to understand this much deeper cycle of energy and... elements and light.
It's just... It feels very powerful and it feels like a moment of levity for the soul to just have that remembrance that's always there.
And I think when people interact with my work or if there's any takeaway, I think my goal within my creative career is to get to a point where my work can stir that remembrance and anyone's
body or in their heart to just at least even for a moment remember like this bigger dance that's always going on.”
Adam: “In a recent press release, it mentions the inherited feminine labor of tending. Can you elaborate on how this concept informs your work, particularly in the context of being a Black woman and a mother, and how it connects to the idea of shedding, cleansing, and renewal?”
Morgan Leigh: “Piggybacking off the last question, it's that remembrance of this bigger cycle and this bigger reality that I think I always wish I could run into and not leave. And I think being a mother, I'm always tethered to the very real world and the idea of scheduling and money and budgets and... climate change and violence.
And, you know, there's these layers where, especially as a parent, it's never not on your mind. You care about the world in a different way for your child.
So I think that... keeps me grounded in this other world.
And so that idea of feeling my spirit kind of like hold in between these two is challenging. And then with my black identity as well, I think it's something that, as I get older, I understand is more important within my work.
I think when I was first starting out, I didn't really want to make that a key factor of my art making, or I almost wanted it to not be represented within my work.
And as I get older and as I try to be a member of society and a mother and fill all these roles, I can't help but feel the weight and the disadvantage that my identity has, and it has caused me to be more vocal and also wanting to take more ownership in that identity.
And especially knowing the work it takes to be a black woman showing up in that way and choosing to ask these questions and to put my creative energy into the world. I now know that it's such a different exchange than some other identities.”
Adam: “A lot of the identities that you hold are really important. Being a female artist, being a mother, being a black woman in these art spaces.
But one that I think is just really important that I don't really see often is being a mother, being an artist, and raising a child. You know, normally I feel like I hear a lot of stories of like, ‘Oh, my kid is also an artist and they're in school.’
And I regularly feel like I hear stories from mothers who are artists when their kids are already at an age where they're self-sufficient to live on their own or whatnot.
And I also think this idea of being an emerging artist is one that's really important to me because it's like, when does someone... no longer be classified as emerging?
Is it like, it's, it doesn't seem to be based on age. So what is it? So I guess…
My question to you is, what advice would you have for emerging artists who are also mothers and hold a lot of these same identities that you do?”
Morgan Leigh: “I think it is so hard because there really aren't that many... artists at least that I'm aware of or that I see in my life, not just online or... You know, through social media, that are attempting to become artists or are emerging artists.
And it is just... a real challenge, and I think also, when I do hear of mother artists, they usually... have a partner.
They're not usually a single mother.
They're usually pretty resourced.
So it's something that I feel it's important for me to be doing because I don't see it being done in the way that I want to do it yet.
So I'm happy to do it, but it is frustrating, especially with this idea of when do you stop becoming an emerging artist?
And I think a lot of times, It's through very institutionalized checkpoints and the idea of getting a certain grant, and a lot of times, if not a grant, it's if you can go to a residency or these things where you're having to leave for three months or six months or a year, and for me that's kind of the next step where I'm at you know…
I'm signed to a gallery, I've went to art school, I've had years of pouring into my practice, and people ask, okay, so what residencies are you applying to, or the gallery is pushing me to apply to things and…
I don't feel like I want to step away, and I don't want to... take time away from parenthood to go and do those things.
So I do feel it kind of this weird crux of, having to choose motherhood instead of this path that's kind of laid out to break past that barrier of emerging artists.
And my conclusion is that I just have to carve my own way and really appreciate the things that motherhood gives me that I could never get from an institution or from three months in a different country.
Like these ideas of deep purpose and groundedness and drive… those are all things that I don't think can always be taught.”