Morgan Thompson was born in Danville, Virginia and spent most of her childhood living the life of a small-town girl. She moved around constantly as a child but never anywhere remarkable. After spending a decent amount of time around the Charlotte area, her family moved to Raleigh while she was in high school and she hasn't left since. Morgan always loved making art but decided to pursue it professionally after experiencing it in academia. She attended Meredith College and earned a degree in Studio Art. During her time there, she explored many different mediums and developed a love for sculpture. Currently, she is focusing primarily on her ceramic mosaic work, but because of her love for stone carving as well she likes to call herself a sculptor.
Morgan uses creating art as a coping mechanism for whatever is occurring in her life and as a way to process her emotions. Most of her pieces are conceptually related to things that she is going through, for example, processing trauma, self-discovery, and mental health struggles. Her work uses three main motifs: Islamic imagery, nature, and the female form. She gravitates towards these motifs because they represent her and who she is.
Some of her achievements have been putting work into her first few exhibitions, including Annual Juried Student Exhibition at Meredith College & Crowns of Glory: Ceremony, Culture, and Couture Through Caps, Coiffures, and Coverings at the James Wise Gallery in 2023. Coming up, she has her senior exhibition titled “Memoirs: Unveiling Identity” at Meredith College to close the chapter of her college art studies. She hopes to attend an artist residency within the next year to expand on her skills and professional portfolio in ceramic mosaics so that she can sell her art for a living.
My work constantly develops as I learn and explore new art making-methods. Although I went into studying art feeling most passionate about painting, I took a variety of classes that encouraged me to branch out and experiment with three dimensional art. I have since moved my concentration to sculpture, and because of this my artistic style has begun to evolve into something new. Through the exploration of 3D mediums, especially ceramics and stone, I have developed a love for the physicality of being a sculptor; I love using the strength of my hands to create.
My work is serious and emotional, but I occasionally make playful art as well. My style tends to include figurative, organic forms and intense craftsmanship to achieve a smooth surface texture or meticulous details. I have recently begun to explore working with concepts related to my life and personal experiences. In doing so, I have found that creating art can be a beautiful way of processing my emotions and healing my inner wounds. As I entered adulthood, I struggled a lot with understanding my identity; I wanted to know who I was and where I fit in this life. Most of my pieces reflect the struggles I was confronting at that time, both subtly and explicitly.
My two most common themes are the female form and nature. When I use the female form, I am often expressing something intimate about myself; when I use nature, I am usually trying to make a statement about my personal views, political, religious, or otherwise. I feel most connected to those two themes because they make up my identity. I am a woman; I am nature. Born with a purpose and driven to create. I fell in love with ceramics and stone carving because of how natural and physical the processes are. Shaping clay and stone from their most natural states into beautiful artwork is incredibly satisfying. In a way, I feel that creating has helped me to shape myself into a beautiful artwork, and pushed me to understand that I am exactly who and where I am meant to be.
Education
Bachelor of Arts in Studio Art, Meredith College, Raleigh, North Carolina, 2023
—Concentration in Sculpture and Ceramics
Awards
—First Runner-up, Colton Review 2023, April 2023
—Meredith College Grant, 2019
Group Exhibitions
—Annual Juried Student Exhibition, Meredith College, Raleigh, North Carolina, 2023
—Crowns of Glory: Ceremony, Culture, and Couture Through Caps, Coiffures, and Coverings, James Wise Gallery, Norfolk, Virginia, 2023
Bibliography
—Colton Review 2023, April 2023, Awarded First Runner-up
—Atlantis: A Creative Magazine, Fall Issue 2022
Professional Experience
ProBuild-Builders FirstSource-BMC
Inventory Specialist, June 2020-Jan. 2021
—Managed daily inventory of lumber and steel building materials.
—Counted used materials and placed orders daily for a warehouse, lumber yard, truss
manufacturing plant, and wall panel manufacturing plant.
Productions Processor, June 2019-March 2020
—Used company engineering software to prepare orders for production. —Assigned work to sawyers in the manufacturing plant.
Secretary, May 2018-Sept. 2018
—Attended the front desk to take phone calls, assist with correspondence, make appointments, and carry out administrative tasks.
Delivery Coordinator, Nov. 2016-July 2017
—Responsible for day-to-day tracking of order delivery services. —Organized the paperwork involved with each delivery.
Professional Organizations
—Kappa Pi Member
Related Skills
Two Dimensional Skills
—Charcoal —Printmaking —Paper/ digital collage —Acrylic —Oil —Graphite —Ink drawing
Three Dimensional Skills
—Ceramics —Styrofoam sculpture —Paper sculpture —Wire sculpture —Stone carving —Woodworking
Mac/PC
—Adobe Photoshop —Microsoft Word —Adobe Illustrator —Adobe InDesign —Adobe Bridge
—Google Programs
Languages
—English, Native Fluency
—Arabic, Working Proficiency
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