The Artist Behind Artimeia
Morgan Jenkins is based in Forres, Moray and was born in Aberdeen. Graduating from Inverness UHI (University of the Highlands and Islands) with BA (hons) Art and Contemporary Practices in 2023, she has exhibited work in Inverness, Forres, Elgin, and Paisley.
Her practice focuses on the small moments and memories taken for granted in day-to-day life, often forgotten, and later treasured. With the rush of contemporary life and less time to look and experience nature in the present moment, each moment completely unique and unable to be replicated through both external influences of weather and time, but also individual influences through independent experiences.
Through painting onto objects associated with the memory and experience, Morgan plays with the boundaries between the viewer and the painting as the learnt connotations of what the object represents impacts and questions how the painting and objects are viewed and interpretated. The object becomes an artwork, but the artwork now also becomes an object which allows each viewer to imprint their own memories onto depending on when and where they experience the painting, allowing her artwork to continuously collect and represent different memories to each viewer.
Artist Statement
A moment only lasts a split second, and it will never exist again. We cannot have an identical experience twice; something will always change. This is the same in nature, no matter if we think it is identical, it will never be the same. Nature is constantly changing, the seasons, light, and weather change. The split second of each moment is entirely unique and that is without our individual experiences and associations imprinting on these moments affecting how we remember that moment and day.
Today we capture thousands of photos, some of them often a photo of a sunset but instead of enjoying the physical experience of that unique sunset, we snap a photo and go on to the next thing in our fast-paced lives today, rarely if ever looking back. That photo then becomes forgotten in our phones, gathering digital dust.
Through painting I focus on those small moments we take for granted, which become our most treasured memories later in life. Taking time to bring these moments into the fast-paced contemporary world to remind us to take a moment to appreciate both nature and these small moments every day.
My process begins by taking photographs capturing the stillness of these small moments in my day, often out walking. I then turn these photographs into paintings, allowing them to become a physical object which we can now imprint more memories and associations onto as we experience the painting. By painting onto objects associated with those memories, the objects then become art while the art also becomes an object.