Featured Artist Interview: Megan Moore

Megan Moore at Cole's Bar taken by Erin Lyle (erinm.lyle on Instagram)

I had the immense pleasure of sitting down with Megan Moore earlier this week, who was our very first featured visual artist in issue NO. 1 of Raging Opossum Press’s magazine for this article diving into her art and creativity. Moore’s multimedia artwork has expanded across many different paths and themes, though now she hones her concentration into kaleidoscopic collages of found material that deliver gut wrenching and honest illuminations of the world we all live in. Her work, from textile, to collage, to photography, and the place where they all intersect exists in extremes, combining the humorous sides of life with the grotesque. These mash-ups offer a strong thematic trend throughout Moore’s work; pieces that unnerve and disrupt the quiet, often illusionary, comforts of “peace” in our society that we may feel and have grown accustomed to. A great example of this is a piece turned into a sticker that you may see adorning a number of items possessed by Chicago residents; that of two golden retriever puppies running towards the camera photographing them with, under the pair, the words “HELL IS REAL” printed. The sweetness of the puppies and the assumed companionship between them is the first thing that is seen–but that is immediately called into question by the text below which forces the viewer to look at the two dogs in a new light and question the validity of their peace and happiness. It does not take a major leap to then expand this observation Moore inspired outwards, thinking of both the personal and material and calling into question the assuredness of our own comforts. What is a real comfort and what is vapidity, just chasing the idea of comfort with the wisdom and awareness of a pair of baby retrievers blindly dashing towards a camera lens? From one sticker of Moore’s creation we have turned and spiraled into evaluating our own day to day and have been forced to take stock of ourselves. This is a standard response to the art she creates, and her larger pieces only continue to show these tribulations further and further with her juxtapositions of what is beauty and what is grotesque. 

When asked what first got Moore into art, she shrugs and says, “There was just never really any other option for me.” Moore started drawing a lot as a kid and got more and more into photography in high school. She continued to pursue photography at Columbia College Chicago, but towards the end of her time there began to feel increasingly limited by what photography had to offer. As she puts it, “I had a lot of control of the image, but was limited in what I could say.” In response, she began to rebel against the confines of what traditional photography could do, moving her own vision into more and more abstraction. The camera of photography often tends to be trained on the positive, the best moments of the day. Moore began to train her lens on the grotesque, photographing roadkill, creating haunting sets of bone to capture on the camera, and more. As she followed this path, soon the idea of mashing different photographs together, or found material with the photograph itself, began to inspire her further, allowing her to manufacture beauty on top of the discomfort, the uncanny, or the repulsiveness she had photographed. This began the juxtaposition that would rapidly become a foundation for Moore’s transgressive work as it led her down the path to collaging. Her craft now is almost exclusively utilizing, recycling, and remaking found images—the process of which has become an opposite to how she viewed photography. As she puts it; “[In collage work] there’s less control [of the image] in using only found images, but I can control more of how these are viewed. I feel pretty empowered when removing the power of a certain image, or teasing it or putting it out of context.” While Moore no longer has the total control the lens offered, found imagery has allowed her a route to showcase the subversions she has been attempting with her work since the beginning, and allows for a clearer way to state her messages.

Art never exists in a vacuum though, and Moore’s work is no exception. There is much art in the world that she has found affinity and inspiration from to draw into her own displays. Moore states one of her biggest influences currently is folk art, and specifically a genre called tramp art; a woodworking/woodcarving practice that can often be found in intricate household items like chests, frames, small boxes, and more. “I love Miranda July so much, film and books,” she continues to explain in regards to other inspirations of hers. “Riot Grrrl music, always. Some of my favorite artists are Barb Krueger, Hannah Hock, Francis Bacon (sorry, it’s a man.) Also…roadkill and the city of Chicago.” Another major inspiration for Moore is trash. After completing a project or looking at what is tossed after a day of living, Moore looks to the leftovers and the discarded to see how she can shape them into something beautiful and stunning, recycling what is seen as refuse and making something precious out of it.

With a laugh, Moore also states that Instagram Reels have served in an inspirational capacity for her, highlighting a positive of the Internet when it comes to the arts. “Instagram Reels are ruining my brain,” she starts off saying. “But there is something I do love about them. I’m seeing a lot of artists that I would have normally never see without the Internet…I think some people are both unintentionally and intentionally making really good art online.” There is a lot of valid suspicion of the Internet in the art scene, and here Moore doesn’t deny or invalidate any of that fear, but her look at the positives of beasts like Instagram is something comforting to hear. Remembering the pros that these are also platforms that allow us to experience new and exciting art from all over the world that we may have never came in contact before is a very beautiful and motivating thing, a wonderful positive that the globalization brought by things like Instagram has given us—as well as acknowledging and being aware of the horrors (the doomscrolling, the AI, the individualization and commodification.) It’s important to acknowledge that these evils do indeed exist within our phones and on our social media platforms, and also it is great to enjoy the art being made by real people and being shared by real people on these platforms.  

Being an artist is no easy career. It’s a path that is wrought with plenty of insecurities popping up, both personally towards the work and fiscally. Moore, despite this, has created a very impressive body of work. When asked how she stays motivated, she just shrugs and says, “There’s no other option for me. It’s tough, I have a 9-5 and, like most people, I get caught up in the shit I have to do but if I don’t create for a time I just get pissed off. It’s a big outlet for me to experience my own life and emotions. You gotta get that weird energy out so you just have to do it! Even if it’s shit or you're not going to use it, it’s a way to release.”

Moore has worked as an artist in Chicago for a while now, and as many artists has been one her whole life. Looking back at her career and herself when she was just starting out in this field in Chicago to now, I was curious as to what advice she would give to her younger self and also to any other artists on the beginning of this journey. Her advice? “Fuck around and find out,” she says with a laugh. “Try everything…try making something ugly.” 

Anyone who has read an article by me in the world of Raging Opossum Press, from visual artists to musicians, knows I am always curious as to what of the four elements (earth, wind, water, fire) the artist would assign themselves as well as their work. Moore was no exception to this inquiry. “For my artwork, I would pick wind,” she says. “There’s a little spontaneity to it. I try to just let myself do what I’m feeling that day. It’s a little sporadic, but a little thought out. Like the wind, you do always know it’s coming after all.”

Continuing, she says, “For myself, earth. Yeah. I’m in the dirt, I’m in the ground. I’m an earth sign! I stand like a tree, dammit! I feel things after the fact and then it comes out in the air, the art.” 

What is next in the world and work for Megan Moore? Currently, she continues to move into more tactile mediums. Moore is now working more and more with ceramics and fabrics. “I may have some sculptures soon,” she says. Everyone will have to wait and see what Megan Moore does next. 

You can find her work on her Instagram at @megxnmoore or her website https://megxnmoore.info/

By Samuel Plauché