Marie sits down with artist and integrative health coach, Morgan Mitchell of Morgan Mitchell Designs.
Marie sits down with artist and integrative health coach, Morgan Mitchell of Morgan Mitchell Designs. The discussion that follows ranges from stories about Morgan's upbringing, the influence her parents had on her love of art, and the importance of holding creative space in your life. With special guest appearance by Tanner "Tan-the-Man" Campbell - our podcast editor and guru.
More information on Morgan:
Art + Design
Instagram: @morganmitchelldesigns
Creative Consulting + CRE8TIVE FLOW
Instagram: @birchwing
Health + Wholeness Consulting
Instagram: @bemobius
[00:00:00] Morgan Mitchell is an intuitive artist on a mission to remind us all that we have wings. The art that comes through her is a gift that she is honored to share with the world. Morgan focuses on honoring and illuminating the inherent balance, [00:00:15] beauty and healing of all beings.
[00:00:23] Welcome to the Daughters of Change podcast. I'm your host. Solar. Each week we'll be bringing [00:00:30] you stories from around the globe of the women and girls who are changing the world, each in their own unique way. Morgan [00:00:45] Mitchell, welcome to the Daughters of Change podcast.
[00:00:51] Marie Soula Thank you for having me.
[00:00:54] Morgan is one of the original daughters of change. She actually she and I actually [00:01:00] met because we had the same Schoor mentor back when. And immediately hit it off and started collaborating about all kinds of interesting ways that we could work together with her art and the healing through her art. And things are really starting [00:01:15] to pick up and happen for all of us. So I think that we're going to be seeing a lot more of Morgan and a lot more of a collaboration between Morgan and Morgan Mitchell Designs and Daughters of Change. So Morgan, this is just serendipitous.
[00:01:28] It really is. It's really [00:01:30] is. And I have to say, such a joy. As we were driving over here in the car, I was rocking out to some kind of tune in the car. I looked ahead, Marines driving ahead of me, rocking out to some kind of tune in her car. And that just kind of a metaphor [00:01:45] for where we're at right now.
[00:01:46] I feel like we're both groovin and movin and in sync, but in sort of separate vehicles. So I'm just so thrilled to be here. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
[00:01:57] There's a lot of that going on right now. A lot of a [00:02:00] lot of things that had been in the incubation phase for a lot of the daughters of change that I've been talking with and working with over the years. All of a sudden, things were just exploding. Right. So we're going to talk a little bit about that [00:02:15] and about how Morgan uses art for healing and sort of that intersection between healing in art. We also have Tanner in here. We're making him sit in the chair who is Twitter. Say hello.
[00:02:28] Hello. I'm your friendly [00:02:30] neighborhood podcast editor.
[00:02:31] Man Tan, the man that's a tan, the man.
[00:02:33] Tanner is the man behind helping me get this podcast out onto the air waves for all of you to listen to it. He is an honorary doctor of change.
[00:02:44] So thank you, though. [00:02:45] To be fair, I just press a button and move my stuff around. You do all the work was all you, Marie.
[00:02:50] Well, that's that's cool. But let me tell you something. The stuff that you do is the stuff that was given me like heart palpitations. So, you know, takes a village. Yeah, exactly.
[00:02:59] It's all [00:03:00] about collaboration. Ed, so we're going to bring tatter into this conversation because a lot of you know, we have no visual here in Tanner's been able to see some of the artwork, so we're good. We're just going to have a nice little Daughters of Change [00:03:15] conversation here today. Morgan, I want to ask you about how art first came into your life. Like, when did you know that this was going to be a big part of your life and that it was going to involve healing? [00:03:30]
[00:03:32] It's a beautiful question to kind of take me back into memory lane.
[00:03:39] So I had the gift of growing up in a creative home. My dad is a photographer, [00:03:45] Robert Mitchell. We had a dark room in our basement. I was always tinkering with something.
[00:03:50] My mom's also very creative and my sister and I would just raise hell. We would make mud pies and we would make high heel shoes out of duct tape and toilet paper [00:04:00] and film canisters. And we were always having our hands dirty in something. So. Always a creative project in In Motion. So I think a lot of my journey [00:04:15] is to be credited to my family for not squelching it. And I had this amazing have this amazing presence of an adopted uncle, my mom's best friend, who's my uncle. He's my uncle. And just an incredible [00:04:30] creative force and was always just cheering me and my sister on and giving us opportunities to tinker, to play, to invent and to create. So I think for me, it was either finger paint, it was collage, [00:04:45] it was a lot of different things. And it changed and it shifted over time. But I think fourth grade, third and fourth grade, I had a teacher that was really, really pivotal. Mrs. Hartley, she really gave us a lot of creative [00:05:00] freedom. We were studying Leonardo da Vinci. And that was a really huge moment for me because I realized, oh, you don't have to just pick one thing. You can be an inventor. You can be a visionary. You can be a poet. [00:05:15] You can be a painter. You can do all these different things. And we had these writers notebooks and we were just kind of muse and daydream. So that was really a moment that opened my eyes to the power of creativity and going into that non-linear [00:05:30] space and just seeing what emerged.
[00:05:33] So where healing and art sort of became an intersection for me was I always created. So I always was painting something, painting fabric, painting old canvases [00:05:45] that I found at the dump, painting on my socks, painting on my walls, pinned down my sister's face, whatever I could get my hands on. And it wasn't until I had sort of a a health crisis where I had a [00:06:00] autoimmune diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis and my body started to really what felt like turn against me. Where I realized that, yes, I needed to change the way I was eating and the way I was living and [00:06:15] the sort of content of my life that I was inviting into my body in my orbit. But that creativity and art really was a pathway to balance and to healing. So when my body started to. [00:06:30] Hurts chronically. It was in conjunction with those other healing modalities meditation, nutrition, movement, prayer, yoga. Just doing less. That I was [00:06:45] able to see that that creative flow is the piece that really took me to a healing space. And then I became fascinated by studying within myself and with the world and others who have come before me, who have explored this intersection of creativity and vitality [00:07:00] and healing and art. So that was where it really all clicked together for me. But the journey started way back when I was young, growing up in a creative household with people that were brave enough to say, sure, do that, do theater [00:07:15] paints, spin on your head, make mistakes, make a mess and just go for it.
[00:07:22] So I think you brought up a couple of really important points here. And in one is that as a child, it [00:07:30] wasn't squelched. Right. And how often do we see, like, don't make a mess, don't get dirty and and. Without meaning to. As parents, as adults, we can really squelch and step on a child's creativity, so very important [00:07:45] to let that process happen and step back and it's, you know, what to worry so much about if some paint gets on the couch. Right.
[00:07:52] So. Right. Absolutely. If your little girl gets muddy, you're a little bro. And it's also hard.
[00:07:58] I have a lot of compassion for parents, [00:08:00] though, to say to give up some of that control. And ultimately you want to keep your child safe. You want the space to be clean. There are real needs and desires that parents have. But I will say that that spaciousness to create a container where kids can really be brave and take risks [00:08:15] creatively is such a tremendous gift.
[00:08:18] Maybe the art room may be laid out in a corner or the creative corner. Creative corner. We had a naughty corner. But we also put the rest of the house was just got a bigger game. I feel [00:08:30] naughty.
[00:08:31] She makes me think of something that's really important and that I work with people today when I do sort of creative vitality coaching and work with people to help get their creative groove back, which is micro creativity. [00:08:45] So it doesn't have to be this grandiose moment where the birds start singing and the sky opens and your to do this is perfectly done where you have this moment to create. It can be when your waiting [00:09:00] in line at the post office and it's taking forever and you have a little pen and a piece of paper and you start to scribble. It can be you're sitting on the toilet and you're singing a little tune to yourself. Think maybe you're in a diner and you're making towers out of sugar packets. [00:09:15] It can be a little corner of your dining room table. It can be just staring up at the stars and seeing what you can imagine, just bringing that playfulness of of the youth and the imagination that we're all born with. So this idea of micro creativity and not waiting for all of the [00:09:30] planets to align to say, OK, now, now I can be creative. No, because it's it's a human impulse. It's what we're all wired to to do anyway. So finding those little tiny cracks in your day to to play, that's really good advice, you know, because we do.
[00:09:43] We do try to wait for [00:09:45] everything to be lined up and perfect like I'm I'm going to create. Once the house is clean or once I'm done with this. And, you know, Tanner, I'm curious for you. Is the pod casting a creative outlet? I know that there are other creative things around this that [00:10:00] are of interest to you, too.
[00:10:01] Have you found this is your your outlet or helps you with the you know, having the space allows you to maybe partake in some of the other creative outlets?
[00:10:11] I really like to help other people be creative. My creativity [00:10:15] usually comes in the form of thinking.
[00:10:17] It's kind of what I like to do. So I have that podcast about mythology and folklore and philosophy and psychology, and I like having those kinds of conversations with a lot of people. Find those things pretty boring. So having a podcast in that sense [00:10:30] helps me to explore the things that I care about and find interesting and be creative in that way. You know, upstairs, I guess in a different way than this, the kind of joy I get from helping others to create and express their art through podcasting. So [00:10:45] it's kind of it's a double edged sword for me in a good way.
[00:10:48] And Morgan, that that really ties back in, you know, to what you were just talking about. How do you find a way to put that creativity into your life and for both you and Tanner and for myself? [00:11:00] I think we're all blessed that we're able to put that into our work as well. You know, and that's so when we get up every day and do what we do. I mean, obviously, with anything, there can be frustrations. But for the most part, like, I'm psyched to get up and and [00:11:15] do my work.
[00:11:17] Totally. I think it was Martha Graham who said that there's this this life force, this vitality that comes through you and it comes through you in the most unique way. And if it doesn't come through you in the way that it's [00:11:30] asking to be expressed, it it's ultimately wasted. And the gift that we can give the world and ourselves is the space, even just in these microbursts, to express that which is uniquely coming through us [00:11:45] as a creative life force.
[00:11:47] And I think sometimes it comes through our work and sometimes it comes through parenting, sometimes it comes through the way we paint a wall or the way we arrange a dinner setting. It's [00:12:00] an innate impulse. And just. Insatiable desire to express and create as a human being. But for so many of us, the outlet just isn't there. So [00:12:15] sometimes this impulse and this creative urge can be anesthetized. I think I definitely went through phases of my life where I was trying to not without even knowing I was over busying myself [00:12:30] or eating too much or distracting myself, whatever it was, to kind of quell that impulse that was scratching inside of me, that just wanted me to create it, just wanted me to sit down and roll [00:12:45] around and listen to a song and scribble some color on paper. But I think that all too often it gets misdirected and it becomes more of a anxiety rather than a joy.
[00:12:59] It that's [00:13:00] really interesting that you say that because art has always been a huge part of my life. And I grew up with a mom who is an unbelievable artist, an opera singer, and from a very young age. You know, I was painting and dabbling and [00:13:15] doing all these different creative outlets. And then it came time for me to go to college and I wanted to go to art school.
[00:13:22] No, my parents saying, no, no, no, no. It wasn't even like you can't get a job. It's like if something happens to your husband, you won't be able [00:13:30] to get a job. And I say that to have one of those other guys. You've done pretty well. You've had a couple. But anyway. Yes, I that's another that's another podcast. That's so.
[00:13:40] So I remember, you know, that feeling of sort of stamping down [00:13:45] my painting and my drawing and taking a few classes in college and then, you know, being a mom relatively young and just putting that aside. And for years, just four years, it was a gut like that. It was [00:14:00] missing that it. And so I would try to find it through my work however I could. You know, as in advertising sales. So through, you know, helping people create spots and write copy and things. I got it out that way. But it's really starting to come back into my life. And looking [00:14:15] back on it now that you said like that piece that needs to be fed, that's trying to get out, and you you're not even quite sure what it is, but something is missing, right? Is that feeling so? So these microbursts allow you to [00:14:30] bring it back in as you can. And creativity means a lot of different things that you don't have to be like, you know, a Leonardo da Vinci. People say, I can't paint, but maybe they're creative in these other ways. Like you said, they're unbelievable interior [00:14:45] design or they they write really well or there there are other ways to find creativity besides just having, quote unquote, the talent to paint or draw. And I think that sometimes people just tell themselves, I don't have any talent, so [00:15:00] they don't try. Exactly.
[00:15:01] It's true. And just like Tanner said, creativity is philosophy. Creativity is thought. Creativity is innovation and invention. And, you know, you could be working on your car. You [00:15:15] could be gazing at the sunset. It's just about accessing a different plane of awareness that allows you to be innovative and have that dexterity of responsiveness that really only comes when we're out [00:15:30] of that.
[00:15:32] You know, day to day grind that requires so much of us to be consistent and replicable, replicable. I don't know what that word may be, but, you know, these boxes [00:15:45] that we're in to get out of that. That's the essence to me, what creativity is.
[00:15:50] Tanner I'm I'm really interested in the idea of philosophy. So my younger son, you remind me a lot of him and he's was a philosophy [00:16:00] major philosophy stingless me, English major, but also a very, very creative soul loves to write. You know, I always was like dabbling in like cartooning and stuff like that. So he's teaching me about philosophy. What? [00:16:15] Is there anything within sort of the study of philosophy or any anything that comes up for you around what you've studied with philosophy and creativity?
[00:16:25] So as far as philosophic schools of thought, I'm a stoic. And [00:16:30] one of the basic premises of stoicism is that it is your duty to provide back to, let's call it the state or the society. And so something that leads me to create [00:16:45] in the ways that I create and to create the podcasts that I have or to help others create theirs, is that when I create my podcast, I believe that I am helping to give back to society by making them think and reflect and become better intellectually maybe, [00:17:00] or to think harder about morality and things like that.
[00:17:02] And when I help others to do it, I may not be helping in the way that I help with my podcasts, but I'm helping them do the thing that they want to do to give back to their state or society. And so philosophy, my philosophy kind of drives me to be [00:17:15] I guess we're calling it creative. I don't think of it that way, but I guess it is.
[00:17:19] That's right. So it all it all really ties in. I mean, if you step back and look at it, you know, and we were having a really interesting conversation over coffee.
[00:17:28] So I've actually come down listeners like [00:17:30] titters like chuckling over there cause like, I got to have coffee.
[00:17:35] Maureen O'Leary on coffee is is how she is lonely? Yeah, exactly. That's so fun. My first job, I was asked to never drink coffee. So it [00:17:45] happened on set. She was dead. She had a day job.
[00:17:52] So as as we were having coffee, we were talking about another piece that I around creativity [00:18:00] and around sort of getting out outside of the box that I I find a lot of the the daughters change. I talk to her kind of doing the same thing and scratching her head like, should I be doing this? But that is the [00:18:15] octopus. So, Morgan, can you give some context around the whole idea of the octopus saw?
[00:18:24] So it happened just a moment ago in Tanner's head. So, Morgan, what do you do?
[00:18:29] And I was like, [00:18:30] Thurbert, he thinks, let me think.
[00:18:33] So I'm an octopus. I think that's how I'm just going to start introducing myself. I'm just going to say, hi, I'm Morgan Mitzel and I'm an octopus. So what does that mean? That means that instead [00:18:45] of just doing one singular thing, my tentacles are in a lot of different pots and that that is not a detriment or a distraction and doesn't dilute what I'm doing. It actually bolsters it. And when I am playing in one area or working in another, [00:19:00] they actually inform and enliven the the next. So that means that. I'm an artist, I'm a coach. I've been consultants. I'm a creative and all [00:19:15] of those different things and I'm just a wild soul. So I'm also just a being that's on a path to learn what it is to be human and hopefully do some good along the way.
[00:19:26] And that really giving myself permission [00:19:30] to be a Leonardo da Vinci versus, you know, someone who's only making one thing or only has one specialty has been permission for me to really take off creatively, because as [00:19:45] tempting as it was to just choose one thing, it's just gonna be my art. I'm going to have an art business. I'm going to have a design business. And that's gonna be what it is. What this has given me the spaciousness it's given me to be able to do some coaching, [00:20:00] whether that be wellness coaching or creative coaching, creative consulting, doing Pop-Up Shops, doing body painting, doing garment commissions.
[00:20:12] It really allows me to be expansive and [00:20:15] better equipped and ultimately be of more service. So having my tentacles in multiple pots, you know, I think about the metaphor of the octopus, right?
[00:20:26] Like if an octopus doesn't spread its tentacles, [00:20:30] it will sink, can't swim. So for me, if I was only having a single pointed of my creative focus, I wouldn't be able to swim and I wouldn't be able to be as of a to the amount of service and joy [00:20:45] that I'm ultimately seeking. So that's a bit of what that means to me. And that's it's about giving yourself permission to be doing multiple things at one time. And where we landed earlier as we were talking [00:21:00] over coffee is it's kind of the feminine way. Yeah. That there's a lot of this circular fluidity around getting things done, that it's not as compartmentalized, that it is more supple [00:21:15] and malleable and that there is a way to multi-task in a way that is actually productive and exhilarating.
[00:21:25] It's like one thing feeds the other because I find that myself, you know, that things [00:21:30] it's hard for me to be completely linear. And by saying that, that doesn't mean that I can't get something done. You know, when I think I'm very energetic and I do a lot of things and I've been accused in the past, oh, do you have A.D.D.? It's like, well, no, because I finish something. [00:21:45] I just do a lot of different things simultaneously. And I think that that is a very feminine energy. It doesn't mean that one way is better than the other. It's just. I think that's the way we're wired in a lot of cases. And and sort [00:22:00] of that original thinking about business. And I think it's changed now with entrepreneurship for everybody across the board. But when I was first coming up, it was like, you focus on one thing. You stay in the same job until you get the gold in, you know, [00:22:15] the golden handcuffs. And there you go. There's a and slip. You get the gold cuff links or the gold and watch. And, you know, you you stay the course. And that was very counterintuitive for me. And I think for a lot of women, [00:22:30] you know, and so coming in now, I see so many women that are doing just this thing and people say, well, don't chase the bright shiny objects. Well, but that's not really what it is, because if everything ties back in and one thing's feeding the other, that's not the same as just kind of being [00:22:45] out there with your butt flapping in the breeze right now. And and just when I decide on the octopus stand or don't describe yourself as an octopus because you'll get in trouble.
[00:22:56] Two hands, zero. Yeah, yeah. Like I would say that I'm like, [00:23:00] well, you to get away with that. So it's real. Yeah.
[00:23:04] I like what you said about the feminine being a lot of things at once. I don't know if this connects to it in any way, but everybody knows if something is phallic. [00:23:15] It means it represents male anatomy right in the the feminine word that is the feminine equal to phallic as yanick and janik symbols are, whereas phallic symbols are things that poke out. Right. Yanick [00:23:30] symbols are circular and they're almost always closed. Interesting. And so I think I think about my own relation with my girlfriend, how I am always very like driven to do A, B, C, D, I'm on a trajectory to get somewhere. And Britney is always on [00:23:45] the trajectory of it's very circular. Like there are things that need to happen every day, every week and every month. And she is the one who makes sure that we stay on that track of making sure we make that leap every month and every day, every year, whatever it is. And it's it's a really interesting concept of balance that you [00:24:00] maybe think about just then.
[00:24:01] Yeah. And it is balance. You know, it's not that one way is right and one way is wrong. And I think you need both of that in the world. I think. What we're seeing is that. The business world for many, many years was [00:24:15] more male dominated. And so, you know, business plans and business models, everything you know now you see these business canvas canvas models, which are really kind of cool. Right. But everything was like, you know, very buttoned up and very from linear, as we're saying, from point A to point B. [00:24:30] And that is not the way everybody is going to respond. So as I'm seeing more and more women starting their own businesses, which were their own non-profits or their own projects, they tend to do it in this fashion [00:24:45] that's that's more circular or more more based on the maintaining of relationships, too.
[00:24:50] Yeah, absolutely. And not just the relationship, like you're my salesperson and I'm your customer, but a relationship that is much more intimate. Yeah. Than would otherwise be, I think. [00:25:00] Yeah. And just an opinion.
[00:25:01] But no, you're right. And the if you look at the way that if you look from a marketing standpoint about the way women purchase and they make buying decisions, it's based on their relationship with the of the product or the company. And [00:25:15] and if they say they're going to do something, they better do that. Now, I think the millennials as a whole have been really good about that. Like the millennials do not. They don't take any bullshit with companies and they don't. They're not just. They [00:25:30] don't have brand loyalty just because it's a brand like that brand really better be giving back and making the world a better place tomorrow than it is today or they'll jump to the brand. That is. So I think that we've seen that spread out. But it's it's true. The relationship [00:25:45] piece is very important to women. And I'm seeing that also with millennials, which is a really cool thing.
[00:25:52] Absolutely. And it's just really refreshing and beautiful to witness the weaving that happens.
[00:25:58] Mary, you're such a. [00:26:00] Mentor and leader in this. For me to witness the way that you weave people together and are all about collaboration and all about cross-pollination and empowerment [00:26:15] and handing someone the mike and say go and you need to meet this person. And you guys would have real synergy together. Again, that relationship building that Tanner was talking about and just the richness and layers that come from [00:26:30] that are tremendous and the effects are exponential. The ripples are going to continue on forever. And when we started working together, I don't know, five, six years ago, it was a while ago I would go. I remember [00:26:45] feeling just so drawn to your generosity of spirit and your focus. So, again, that sort of circular focus, because you were constantly weaving and you were networking and you were putting these pieces together.
[00:27:00] But [00:27:00] it was so beautiful to me to see you really be that kind of gymnast of connection to just kind of do back flips and figure out how to weave these two, three, four people together to make something [00:27:15] really beautiful.
[00:27:15] So Daughters of Change feels like that to me. It feels like that.
[00:27:23] Non-linear weaving. But it's also just getting a lot of shit done.
[00:27:28] Yeah. And thank you. Thank [00:27:30] you for that. You know, I think part of that comes from. I love to solve puzzles. I know that that there's a piece of me that, like I I look at things and like, how did these pieces all go together? You know, from a young age, [00:27:45] I loved things like that. And then as I got older, because I really I really like people. I mean, people go. I don't like people in like people are awesome. You know, I love meeting people of all walks of life. I just love talking to people. I find it fascinating. [00:28:00] Right. And but seeing how people would work together, you know, and and when I started in business, I didn't have a lot of female mentors. Not because they there weren't [00:28:15] women that would have helped me, because there just weren't a lot of women at a level where they could help. But I did have some really great male mentors and I remembered how much that meant to me and and thinking, you know, it's really important to [00:28:30] do that, to help somebody else or to bring people together. And in this idea that women don't do that for each other is just a bunch of bullshit. We can now we'd have to put something [00:28:45] on the podcast that is worth Flori.
[00:28:47] If your kids listen, we will market as explicit. Yes. FADEL Livewith split it. Oh. This is now NC 17. This is why I was there. I said phallic [00:29:00] and yet that's where we're phallic. Shit. Yeah, exactly. We got it all rhythm. And now you've said phallic shit. Exactly. Yeah. George Carlin, we've got you may have had seven words George. We have 22. Oh [00:29:15] we have it in. Wait till we start combining them.
[00:29:18] You know that idea of of bed touring I think is is important and that the fact that people think that women don't do that. We've been painted that way, you know, and [00:29:30] you know, you look at some of the stuff on TV. I had to stop with some of that, you know? I'm sorry, but I had to stop with the housewives stuff. You know, I said, love that stuff was my guilty pleasure. But I'm like, you know, they're really not very nice to each other and they're probably great people. [00:29:45] I'm not saying you're all not really cool people, but like what that promotes to to other women watching it. It's like women are just like catty. They're all thereafter your boyfriends that, you know, it it's like, no, I've never experienced that. And I'm not [00:30:00] saying that stuff doesn't happen. I have never experienced that. And and I've as I've gotten older, I've realized that when there were maybe situations that could have gotten that way, it's how do you reflect to that situation? So [00:30:15] what are you putting out to other women? And to me, women have been like the biggest supporters in my life. So I think it's really important that we we do that for one another and for men to do it. But I think men are actually historically [00:30:30] were better about doing that for one another than than women were. That's how was painted, you know, so painted. Because we're being created.
[00:30:40] Yeah, no, I agree.
[00:30:41] What are your thoughts on that terror on men being more supportive of men in [00:30:45] general, or just like the way that women have been painted to be adversarial and competitive vs. collaborative?
[00:30:53] I think, you know, world that suggests that women should have as a goal [00:31:00] the attainment of a husband.
[00:31:01] You had mentioned being at war that all of a sudden the husband becomes a prize of a sort and some competition will happen. Competition definitely happens with men between women, but men are taught to be after something different than the value [00:31:15] of their relationship. I don't think any you say we've already said phallic shifts. I think that that means that we we deal with our competition differently because we're competing for women. We're competing for part of a woman. Yeah, till we get older. And then it's less about [00:31:30] that and more about. Oh yeah, we need to have a relationship. Right.
[00:31:33] If the up dating me. Right.
[00:31:37] So I just think I think we probably all support each other in the end as much. Yes. It just looks a lot different because of how we're raised [00:31:45] in how society conditions us.
[00:31:47] A thought to on that. I mean there's also something really profitable if we're looking upon the backdrop of capitalism.
[00:31:55] Right. There's something really profitable about drama and painting [00:32:00] and painting women to be catty and dramatic to each other. It's profitable whether that be in movie or reality TV and whether you're in a hetero relationship, queer relationship.
[00:32:13] Non-binary, whatever [00:32:15] drama sells. So I think the dramatization of the human condition and the dramatization of really playing up. People not really caring for, you know, gregarious, [00:32:30] loving relationships. It's beautiful, but it doesn't get you all psyched up. Oh, you know, like there have been centuries of bullfighting and, you know, these different wrestling paradigms that have emerged throughout ancient history of like, yeah, [00:32:45] people like drama. So I think just really coming back to. OK, well, what's true for me today, what's true for me today is that regardless of who these people are like, I really do believe people are good at heart. And if you're inviting that type of energy toward you, then that's [00:33:00] ultimately what's going to be received. And it's not. Then you have a form boundary and you get to, you know, be on your way. So I think that, yes, people are are good at heart. And I think that there's a lot of need and lack and miseducation that guides [00:33:15] people in ways that are destructive. Ultimately, yeah.
[00:33:17] Ed, only three things that out-compete drama, I think.
[00:33:20] What are they, cute babies, cute puppies and two puppy left-hander? That's true. You don't look at it like what do you share on Facebook?
[00:33:28] It's either somebody is mad about [00:33:30] something and you're having an argument or it is a cute puppy on a skateboard.
[00:33:33] Yeah, it's true. You're a little kid. You know, it it's funny because I I look at stuff sometimes. I'm like, oh, my God. Like, you actually just put that on Facebook. You know, I'd be coming from a generation back [00:33:45] from not growing up. I mean, they're working the computer. I mean. Well, actually, when I was in like the third grade, I got to test a computer because it was huge. It was like this huge thing. And you had these like punch cards. Right. And so was he. It was like the granddaddy [00:34:00] of reality, but not growing up with social media. I'm I'm sometimes I'm like, oh, my God. Like, dude, did you just really just put that on social media? Thank God. I'm just gonna say right now, thank the lucky heavens [00:34:15] that there was no Facebook when I was in high school or college or I would be happy.
[00:34:21] That's part of that drama thing to this point like that gotcha culture where we know because we didn't grow up with social media, even even I didn't. How old are you? Twenty [00:34:30] eight. So you kind of maybe did a little wish. You know, MySpace. Oh, yeah, that's right. That's old music club, which is the weirdest thing. We know that things we did as kids were like we didn't know any better. But [00:34:45] now, if you did something when you're 16 and it's on social order, you better know that when you are 45, if somebody finds a gotcha, it's still a way to hold you accountable for things that you didn't used to. That it thought that it was excusable was just that people seem to understand [00:35:00] that you grow up being kind of crappy, everybody starts out crappy or then they end up. And forgiveness isn't really a thing as much these days. No, it's not.
[00:35:10] It's not. And the other part is, you know, times change and [00:35:15] political correctness changes, you know, and so I don't know if it's different.
[00:35:20] I think it's just that I think people are calling people out on it, are getting good. Gotcha. Bianco's they can. Yeah. Because now there is that there's that archival resource of everything you've ever [00:35:30] done. No ohmygod like. I think if that had existed in 1812 it would have happened then too.
[00:35:34] Oh yeah. Yeah it's, it's crazy. And I think about that and you know God forbid if you ever want to run for office or something. You know, it's just. Yeah. I really [00:35:45] think my lucky stars for the freedom of not having to deal with that.
[00:35:51] The cameras that didn't upload to the Internet. Really? Oh, my God. Like I would have been like first of all, I was grounded enough as it was. If somebody had video proof, I would have been like living [00:36:00] right my nest camera got you crawling out the window. Marie, my brother actually did count catch me crawling out the window. She had to be there. Yeah, she was there actually. She Cobby crawling back in the window and it was a very small window.
[00:36:12] And I I didn't I didn't know how the hell I was gonna [00:36:15] get the rest of the way. And I was like 15 feet off the ground. Don't even ask. And she turns on the light. She looks at me. It goes, you stupid ass. I had to leave you there all night.
[00:36:24] I'm like, But, mom, please, if I follow good shit like drags me out the window anyway. So yeah. So [00:36:30] that was just when I got caught at it. Thank God there was a video what I was doing before I crawled in the window. Right. So covering some bases. Yeah. Yeah. It's just it's all just an act.
[00:36:42] This is our intuitive like daughter change conversation. [00:36:45] Sometimes you gotta let it rip, gotta let it roll. So Morgan, jumping back for a second to something we were talking about, about the mentoring and people coming together. There's been a lot of I've seen a lot of collaboration lately [00:37:00] among artists, among a lot of people, but also, you know, art being a vehicle for change and art being another way that a daughter of change can tell their story or talk about an issue surrounding them that they'd like to see that they'd like to make some change with.
[00:37:15] I've [00:37:15] also seen a lot of collaboration among issues with artists around causes. We just had an art show recently, the opening that was in honor of Domestic Violence Awareness Month and benefited one of our local [00:37:30] domestic violence resource centers. So what's your what is your thought on artists collaborating for change and what are you seeing out there?
[00:37:40] I saw. Artists collaborating for change is one of the most potent [00:37:45] transformational forces. I think there is out there to be a catalyst, to be a microphone, to be a reflection of the times. I think I'm seeing more and more of it. Not to say that there hasn't always [00:38:00] been, but in my own personal sphere. I'm seeing a ton of collaboration that that's just whether that's.
[00:38:08] Musicians who are collaborating and they're doing lots of different. Out of the box collaboration is [00:38:15] connecting and working with artists that they wouldn't otherwise or visual artists connecting with.
[00:38:20] Audio visual people or adding another sensory element to their craft. I think it's just becoming a real incredible sandbox [00:38:30] where the lines are blurred and. Creativity is just having a real kind of field day in that way and having a really tremendous impact.
[00:38:40] I think any social issue that there may be, I think there's artists out there who are reflecting [00:38:45] the times and who are making a statement and making a difference. I think it's tremendously powerful. And I think it's. A responsibility, the artist, not the only responsibility artist, because I think as tempting as it might be to say my [00:39:00] job as an artist is to make change. My responsibility as an artist is also just to create because I have to. And because it heals myself and therefore heals the world. So I think that just playing with that word collaboration a bit, I think that [00:39:15] my belief is that every act of art that comes through me is a collaboration. And it feels a bit radical to say that, but what I mean when I say that is that I'm either collaborating [00:39:30] with a thought or a form or a moment or a poem or a dream or an interaction or a act of kindness that I've encountered in my past, collaborating with something that's already taken place. Someone [00:39:45] who's touched me emotionally. Someone who's. Shocked me or hurt me or a grief or whatever it may be collaborating with something bigger than myself, call it God. Call it universe. Call it the Star. Call it's [00:40:00] the goddess. Whatever your name for that, which is bigger than us collaborating with that force all the time. So in a way, I really don't see the art that comes through me as an individual wise process, even when [00:40:15] I'm creating alone. So it's a collaboration from the beginning. For me it is. That's the way it feels like. It feels like there's very little that comes from the Morgan mechanism and is birthed into the world and that is only mine. I see it as something [00:40:30] that has been in concert and in conversation with many other entities and forms prior to it coming through me into the world.
[00:40:38] So you're that you are the nexus, which you're saying that might sound less radical and mean exactly the same thing. Is that all art [00:40:45] is the result of collaboration that happened came to you? You interpreted and then put something out that feels true.
[00:40:54] Yeah, I think that for me it's e it would be easy to slip [00:41:00] into.
[00:41:00] This is my art and this is what I do and this is my brand and this is my identity. That's not a healthy place for me. And that's not a life-giving place for me. That's not an expansive place for me. That's not a joyous place for me. What's more expansive and more. [00:41:15] Beautiful is the humility to say, yes, I'm definitely a conduit. I'm definitely a vessel and a part of this, and I've taken many hours to practice and to learn and to express [00:41:30] and to play and dedicate a lot of time and energy to that. But I can't take responsibility for everything that's coming through me.
[00:41:36] It's not just more humble is more true, because if you were on an island with your eyes closed, with no senses, you couldn't create art. Yeah, it's all the things around you. All those [00:41:45] collaborations that happen in nature, even if you don't call them collaboration, those experiences result in your ability to interpret them, put them together and make something that's cool.
[00:41:54] So the collaboration is really a natural extension from where the creativity is coming from anyway.
[00:41:59] She's experience, [00:42:00] you know, that's cool.
[00:42:01] So wow, I didn't see it. This is so cool. I get all this magic we're creating here. The energy in here is so cool.
[00:42:10] We've got our peppermint candy. We I mean, discount. Yes. Count candle. [00:42:15] Yeah. Love it.
[00:42:17] And so let's talk about the wings then. Sharp, because the wings. The wings just you started. Well, anyway, I'm wearing the first creation of the [00:42:30] wings and we're gonna have Tanner explain those and make because like we have no visual here. Right. And they're so beautiful. But where did the wings come from for you? Because that's been a really big theme lately.
[00:42:40] Shaw I took a nap, as [00:42:45] I do sometimes when I get tired. And I woke up.
[00:42:48] This is probably the first wings that ever hit. Paper was probably close to four years ago. And the garment you're wearing is the first garment [00:43:00] they arrived on, the first jacket they arrived on. But I took a nap, woke up and had this unbridled desire to paint black and white wings, didn't know where it came from, wasn't sure what it was, but couldn't not. [00:43:15] So we live in a small apartment and I remember taking a piece of paper and taping it to the wall and getting my ink and getting a paper, getting a brush and a jar of water and just went to town and these wings just fell out of me. [00:43:30]
[00:43:31] And I remember looking at them and being like, WTF, you guys are fierce. You've got an agenda. I don't know what is up or where this is coming from, but it's definitely. Been.
[00:43:42] Cornerstone been a point of [00:43:45] departure for guiding me toward the healing art that I've been doing, so these wings are what I've landed in is just an artful reminder of the power that people already have within themselves. So just [00:44:00] my responsibility as an artist or my joy as an artist is just to. Show people through an artful, personalized way that they have wings and that they are resilient and that they're guided and that they're capable of things [00:44:15] they're not they don't even know they're capable of. So that process, those wings have guided me to a lot of different places. I've made pieces for people who are grieving. I've worked through a lot of my own personal grief making wings. I have [00:44:30] made garments for babies or people who are dying or people who are recovering from an addiction or changing a life stage. So this has just been an incredible way [00:44:45] to lean into the call and response of what art and healing is for me to then move toward body painting. So painting directly on the skin, on the back of a person. Such an honor to be able [00:45:00] to. Be in their space and really feel their energy to understand what types of colors and what type of pattern would really be of the most service to them to support their thriving. So again, just really landing back in that place of the creative vitality, [00:45:15] the intersection of healing and art, where it becomes a healing experience while you're receiving the art which is already within.
[00:45:23] You said the visual on Morgens art is really pretty astounding. And I'm going to have Tander [00:45:30] saw the wings when we walked in. He's like, what are the wings about? So say you're going to see wings. And he's promising it. Like, what is she talking about this time? The will make sure that in the show notes we have a link. Morgan has an unbelievable Instagram account. Morgan Mitchell designs. Is that create [00:45:45] a create that is gonna create me.
[00:45:48] That's creating indeed. Correct. To create. Yeah. Yeah, correct.
[00:45:52] And also your Facebook page on your Web site. So we'll make sure that's all in the show. Notes for everybody. But that's Morgan Mitchell designs. Really incredible. [00:46:00] I love your Instagram in particular. Thanks. But Taylor, like we walk did. I was saying you were coming in. We have wings and you were kind of like, what are these wings like?
[00:46:09] What did you think when we walked in? You mean to describe them? Yeah. Just what we came up for. You describe. Yeah. [00:46:15] So first, they're not like bird wings. They're more like Metatron angel type wings. They're very long in that sense. So they go down not the entire length of the coat you're wearing, but close. And the color palette is very. It made me think of a chipmunk. I don't know why I [00:46:30] like the brown and the white. And there's I think I remember seeing like white dots in a circle of shapes, which made me feel like it was kind of African in a sense. I don't know it. I wouldn't look at it and call it African art in any way. But there was an element of that [00:46:45] in the decoration of them. It looks really cool on that beige color. What suede jacket? Yeah. So I have a question.
[00:46:52] You said that that is the first coat that this design fell upon or that these wings felt. Right. When you painted on a garment. Yes. [00:47:00] Did you know that that coat would be for Marie?
[00:47:04] I think subconsciously. Yeah, but you didn't.
[00:47:07] No, no, no.
[00:47:08] But that jacket your size, it fits you like a glove. Isn't that wild?
[00:47:12] So when she ever gave it to me, I was blown [00:47:15] away because I wear this out in people like. Does it matter? Men, women, kids age the they. They think that the feathers are real. I mean, they look so real right there. It's amazing. And they're so we'll. Yeah, we'll make sure you see some photos of these when you get on [00:47:30] to Morgan's stuff. But they're just. And it's so appropriate with Daughters of change and, you know, getting the wind under the wings, it was. So would she ever said I think she would just show up for tomorrow for coffee one day and she said, I think this is for you. I think I could. And she handed [00:47:45] it to me and I put it on and it felt like I was, like, blown away. It was. Yeah. So that's how that happened.
[00:47:50] And that's just such a good representation of how these this piece of art, this particular pattern has just taken the driver's seat. So I feel a [00:48:00] real surrender about where these wings are taking me. It's a design that's sort of fallen out of the sky, literally. They go and they're just leading the way. So whether that leads me to a collaboration or that leads me to I'd [00:48:15] like to move into doing some hennah and doing wings for Hannah. I'd like to work with people who are or have had an invitation to work with people who are departing, who are leaving the world, were dying and really giving them an artful sendoff with their families so that they're reminded [00:48:30] that they're guided and that they're protected as they transition.
[00:48:33] I just got chills. I mean, talk about like death, Dula. And I just. I just got chills. That's that's beautiful.
[00:48:41] Yeah, yeah. Feels like one of those things that [00:48:45] the image. I mean, look, this type of art, right?
[00:48:48] Indigenous cultures have been making art on garments and on bodies for ever. And it feels like something really ancient that I'm. Tapping into right now [00:49:00] and just it feels like a real privilege to be able to create spaces, to be able to bring it into the world.
[00:49:07] It's beautiful. So, Morgan, what advice do you have for the daughters? Just the best piece of life. [00:49:15] Advice, advice. But art, whatever comes to whatever comes up. What's the best piece of advice you have for the daughters? Change out there listening.
[00:49:22] Daughters of change out there. Listening. I would say get get your hands dirty, create. Just create. [00:49:30] Create from your heart, even if you don't feel creative or you don't think you're a creative person. Know that that's just simply incredibly untrue. And that because you're a human being, you are creative. And just allow yourself the [00:49:45] the gift of even these microbursts of creativity, because you don't know what will emerge and you don't know how it will affect other aspects of your life. So I would say create it, build strength, it builds resilience, it builds health, it [00:50:00] builds connection, and it helps you stoke the fire that ultimately allows you to make the change in the world that you're born to make.
[00:50:10] That's a that's beautiful advice. So get your tentacles dirty, get your tentacles.
[00:50:15] But [00:50:15] not you. Brothers. Yeah, I got the eyes. Studs. Yeah. Well, yeah. Right. Well said. Thank you. Yes. Oh my God. That's what they were.
[00:50:28] Morgan, how do we connect and support you? [00:50:30] I mean, we're gonna have your information out there. Are there connections you're looking to make or that things you're looking to do places your people you're looking to see, places you're looking to go? How can we connect and support you?
[00:50:40] Let a generous question through to Marie Marie Spirit. I [00:50:45] think what can I say? I mean, if you want some wings, you know where to go and do commissions all the time and paint on any garments. And it's not just wings. I can really paint anything on pretty much anything. So that's [00:51:00] a fun way to support this work and to get art out in the world off a canvas into the world. And I am working as a wellness coach, [00:51:15] so these contacts will be in the show notes. But health and wholeness coaching, my business partner and I started B Moebius Health and Homeless coaching. So that's again seems maybe a little bit distinct from the art, although it's absolutely [00:51:30] connected because a lot of the work that I do is in that sort of practice of creative vitality and crute creative consulting work.
[00:51:40] So I work with entrepreneurs, business people to help bring flair and focus into the work [00:51:45] that they're doing.
[00:51:46] And then just creative vitality coaching. So if you feel like you want some help getting your creative groove back and haven't been in your studio for a while or feel like your paints are dried up or you haven't been dancing or you haven't been [00:52:00] making up stories, gazing at the stars, that's something that I really love engaging with. So I would say just just stay tuned and also let me know what you're desiring from a creative perspective, [00:52:15] because I am an octopus and able to kind of adjust and adapt.
[00:52:19] If there's something that is interesting that you'd like to see creatively that perhaps I could offer, that is of great use and interest to me.
[00:52:28] Fantastic. So we'll make sure that all [00:52:30] of all that information is in the show notes so people will know how to reach you. And stay tuned in 2020, because we have a limited edition, Daughters of Change collaboration that's going to be out there that we're working on with Morgan.
[00:52:44] So [00:52:45] you'll hear more about that. So any last words, Deanna and Morgan?
[00:52:50] I have thoroughly enjoyed being part of this. I'm usually over there at the desk and this is kind of cool.
[00:52:57] I'll be I.B. again sometime. Yeah, it was great to have you waited. [00:53:00] I love this. We're getting all the perspectives. It's cool. We're going to do rules all about. It's all about collaboration. Absolutely. No, us and them.
[00:53:08] Yeah. I would just say thank you from my heart of hearts, you know? Thank you both for creating this space and writing Ian and Murray for [00:53:15] your continued just bad assery of being able to to weave and to be focused and to get shit done and to lift people up and amplify voices and hearts. So thank you.
[00:53:30] Thank [00:53:30] you for listening to this week's episode of the Daughters of Change podcast. To learn more about today's guest or any of our previous guests, you can visit. Daughters of Change dot com forward slash podcast. You can connect with Daughters of Change [00:53:45] on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram by searching those platforms for Daughters of Change. If you are a daughter of change yourself and would like to appear on the show, send me an email at Marae at. Daughters of Change dot com. Thanks [00:54:00] again for taking the time to listen today. Take care.