The Work

My atmospheric digital and traditional paintings combine aspects of abstraction and realism to capture moments of quiet contemplation. With minimal gestures I explore meetings of edge and ether—material and mystery—which I find in the sublime qualities of light and shadow.

I believe the ultimate purpose of art is to reawaken in us the sensation of life—that human intuition is a tuning fork meant to be struck by the profoundness of creation. The power of art to transform your space, mood, and mindset is priceless. My hope is that my work can serve as an emblem of longing and a reminder of the vastness of experience available to each of us in our solitary worlds.

As well as original pieces, I offer limited edition prints of my digital paintings. For a more personal insight into my practice, check out my blog post, Why I Create.

The Artist

Maggie Morton is an artist working in digital painting and traditional mediums. She is also a published poet and writer of art criticism and other essays, as well as a musician and songwriter.

She earned a BFA in Studio Arts from Illinois State University and currently resides in Central Illinois with her husband and cats. She formerly served as the Curator of the McLean County Arts Center and the Director and Editor of Sight Specific, an online publication for critical writing on contemporary art programming in and around the Central Illinois area, as well as a Regional Editor for Sixty Inches From Center, based in Chicago.

Artist Statement

My work is stirred by a lifelong enchantment with sublime experience—the moments where the self expands beyond material bounds while simultaneously recognizing its vulnerability before the immensity of spiritual and spatial reality.

For me, these moments are conjured by words that gesture to the unspoken, like street lights frame the silhouette of night’s secret forms. The echoes of a chord through which we discover the vastness of the chamber that surrounds us. By a foggy atmosphere that reveals in the way it ebbs and settles, the weight of some unknowable yet unmistakable truth.

Curriculum Vitae

Education

Illinois State University, Normal, IL
Bachelor of Fine Arts, December 2016

Solo & Two-Person Exhibitions

2018

The Great Hallway Gallery, Normal, IL, New Works

15 on Top, Normal, IL, Tilting at Windmills

2016

Transpace, Illinois State University, Normal, IL, Afterimage

2020

Jan Brandt Gallery, Bloomington, IL, Big Top


2019

Jan Brandt Gallery, Bloomington, IL, Spookeh 4

Transpace, IL State University, Normal, IL, Sky High Skies

Jan Brandt Gallery, Bloomington, IL, TWOgether

2018

Ramp-Arts, Bloomington, IL, Unauthorized Collaborations

The Palm Place, Bloomington, IL, MUSHY


2016

Transpace, IL State University, Normal, IL, STACK PACK PUNCH: BFA Collaborative Show

Jan Brandt Gallery, Bloomington, IL, New Works

Mclean County Arts Center, Bloomington, IL, 89th Annual Amateur Exhibition

University Galleries, IL State University, Normal, IL, Illinois State University Student Annual


2015

Milner Library, IL State University, Normal, IL, Utopian Spaces

University Galleries, IL State University, Normal, IL, Illinois State University Student Annual


2014

Woman Made Gallery, Chicago, IL, 17th International Open

Group Exhibitions


Published Prose


2022

Medmic, A Note on Rest

Radix Magazine, Altar of Mind, The Spirit Leaves for Green, Witness


2021

Time of Singing, Fall Issue, On Thirst, At Sea

Time of Singing, Summer Issue, Concrete Spine

2019

Studio, Issue 147, Concrete Spine, On the Forty-Two Deaths Outside Bethel, On Thirst, At Sea, and Static


2017

Catfish Creek, Issue 7, Afterimage and A Worthy Verse


2016

Euphemism, Issue 12.1, I-55 North and Red

Published Poetry


2018

Sight Specific, Jessica Tackes, Tilting at Windmills at 15 on Top


2016

WGLT, Lori Waxman, 60 WRD/MIN Art Critic at University Galleries

Bibliography