Mandi Morgan is a multi-visual artist based in Montreal, Canada.  She specializes in allegorical storytelling through illustration, animation and filmmaking.  Inspired by the forests of her native British Columbia, she developed a strong connection to nature and integrates this into the work she produces. In 2007, she completed a BA in World Literature from the University of British Columbia. She completed her BFA in Film Production in 2010 from the MHSoC in Montreal, Canada where she was the recipient of the Bruce Mallen award for cinematography. She worked as an educator at the National Film Board of Canada for a while before completing a graduate certificate in interactive digital technologies from Concordia University in 2017. She was invited to the Haida Gwaii Museum and Cultural Centre on Haida Gwaii, British Columbia to exhibit her collection titled "Boreal" which focuses on the devastating impact that the natural gas sector has on the Boreal forest in Northern Canada in 2017.

illustration by Sarah Barone

Technique

Most ideas for my work come to me in dreams and visions.  I have a rich dreamworld where I spend a lot of time with animals in their natural habitat.  I intuitively transpose these experiences into colour and parable. My illustrations are hand drawn because I must viscerally connect to the work I produce. This is how I give it life. Fine .005 archival ink pens are used to depict the vulnerable tensions that the world has within a compromised ecosystem.  I also use professional graphic markers illustrated on acid free paper

Synesthesia

My experience with synesthesia is important to my creative process. Synesthesia is when one cross modal correspondence (sense) involuntarily  invokes the stimulation of another.  This creates a multi-sensorial experience. For me, sound and classified systems such as numbers and letters adopt specific colours, gender and personification.  The unique relationship I have between my senses enable me to make uncommon associations that inspire my imagination. 

Visual Allegory

We currently live in an era where images hold the power to inform.  These images can be reductive and polarizing because they often lack the context to develop critical conclusions.  Through the method of visual allegory, I attempt to produce work that provides alternative ways of looking. By storytelling with fantastical images, I wish to express important information about the natural world. I do not deliberate these messages but attempt to obscure them in the finer details of my work.  I hope to inspire critical thought by sharing powerful images in a thoughtful subtle manner so the viewer can take full ownership for their ideas and opinions.  It is my goal as an artist to broaden the spectrum of ideas and imagination in the work I create.

Stewardship

Growing up in Canada's rugged Pacific Northwest taught me that all is interconnected.  Since I was a child, I experienced the world through an animistic lens.  Rocks adopted personality and trees became my closest confidants.  I spoke with insects, plants and birds as easily as I spoke with people.  The natural world is the source of my belief system.  I create work devoted to honouring and protecting the flora and fauna of our world's forests by creating imaginative microcosms where wildlife and plants band together to fight against the devastating impact that resource extraction has on the global environment.  The magical beings raise awareness by exercising reciprocity and tolerance.  I wish to promote the importance that community and kindness have in order to sustain the health of our natural world and all the beings within it.

Temporality

My work takes several hours.  This is my way to synchronize to the pace of the natural world. Nature is our greatest storyteller.  Her stories unfold slowly between the geological strata of time.  The human story is more rapid as we exist on a different geological time scale.  Our story is being further accelerated due to the many ways technology disseminates information.  Our story is becoming fractured because we are continually inundated with images that support the culture of consumerism.  My work is an attempt to slow down time by compressing as many details into my work as possible.  I wish to build an atmosphere that maintains the attention of the viewer by providing a space to contemplate and reflect on the natural world without interruption.  I hope to generate moments of stillness so that we may connect to the fragile threads that drive the narratives of our time.