MORGAN SUTER
INTERVIEW & STUDIO VISIT
As we drive down Hackemann avenue the sun’s rays start to fade from yellow to pink and purple in a broad arc across the evening sky. The wind carries a scent of osmanthus from pockets of gathering darkness beneath pine and live oak trees, set far back in yards ringed by chain link fences—some manicured and some overgrown. Gravel crunches under our feet as we cross the threshold of Studio Union. An unassuming grey exterior wall gives way to a bright, high-ceiling expanse of greenware and fired ceramic, paintings, throwing wheels, easels, tables, racks and toolchests.
Tucked beneath a slanting, white blockwork addition at the back of the building, Morgan Suter’s studio occupies an approximately 10 ft x 10 ft space between two freestanding movable walls. In preparation for a renovation which will add windows to the space, most of the other studio artists have covered their work and supplies with sheets of translucent plastic. Morgan is still busily at work in the slightly alien, liminal atmosphere. The atmosphere is well suited to the conversation to come, which will range from the vaunted studios of history’s greatest painters to the exotic climes of the planet Venus—and the paradisiacal lifestyles of its inhabitants.
It is immediately apparent in Morgan Suter’s work and her eloquent, frank, and unpretentious analysis of that same work that here we are speaking with someone who is already well on their way to the ‘10,000 hours’ that make one a master—if she has not reached that milestone already. Her skill in drawing and painting, in capturing the play of light on flesh, and in rendering the human form are undeniable, and clearly the product of a rigorous technical education and countless hours of personal practice. Morgan Suter is rich in the universal currency of studio artists—a recognition of time spent, hours logged, of technical skills that are the product of long nights at the easel and the drafting table.
We are meeting Morgan at a wonderful time in the story of her work. Setting aside some hallmarks of her earlier work—color palette, format, a particular approach to the figure—she is embarking on a new project: an attempt to open a window into another world. A world where the unlikeliest creatures fly gracefully. Where giant worms shimmer and twist beneath rainbow skies. And where chickens have the most lovely eyes.
PW: LET’S DIVE IN. Can you talk about color in your work?
MS:
I was always a drawer and I actually struggled with color a lot at the beginning of my painting practice. I focused more on value at first. When I went to college that's when I started to push color a little bit more. I stopped using neutrals all together in my palette in 2017. I just like to have a warm and cool of each of the primaries and I can just mix my neutrals from there. My painting process has changed a lot in the last few years.
Before I switched to not using neutrals, I would do this under-painting of burnt umber or raw umber and I would leave little parts of that under-painting exposed. My teacher at the time said that that was deadening the space, and that really clicked for me. After that, I decided that I'm just going to start doing hot pink or purple underpaintings, or I'm just gonna draw with crayons and start with color. The paintings are still neutral rich because of the color mixing that's going on; because of how sporadically and untraditionally I paint It's almost just better for me to just let the neutrals kind of occur naturally. I didn't really start understanding color until I just kind of dove headfirst into it.
PW: WHO ARE SOME OF YOUR INFLUENCES IN THE PAINTING WORLD?
MS:
Lisa Yuskavage is one of my favorite painters of all time. Obviously she's kind of my hero. I started out being a big Jenny Saville fan and now I’ve become more of a Lisa Yuskavage fan. She’s dealing with almost a similar subject, but she's doing it in a way that is a lot more playful. She also just says brilliant things about color.
PW: CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT SOME OF THE CHARACTERS WE’RE SEEING IN YOUR WORK?
MS:
I've started working from my imagination a lot. I used to work from life mostly and then I worked from photos and now I kind of like the idea of working more from my imagination. I have this world that I’m building based on the concept of fat Venus or a fictional version of the planet Venus. All of these paintings are inhabited by all these different characters. There’s the Boobie Butterfly Ladies. The Boobie Butterfly Ladies are very much about this idea of weight versus weightlessness. That's something I think about in the work a lot. These figures are impossible. They shouldn't be able to fly because they have big boobs and big bellies but it doesn't matter. They still have this weightlessness. I have all these characters– for example, the rainbow worm eats all the sorrow in the universe so that way Venus can prosper and so can the chickens with sexy lady eyes. I like for the paintings to have humor. For me, painting was so serious for so long and now I can use it as more of an escape.
I sort of like the idea of [the boobie butterfly ladies] having varying degrees Of realness, and that's kind of me more so playing and trying to figure out which figures have more of the effect that I want to achieve. These I do sort of because I think that they're just weird and a little unnerving and I sort of like that about them. I think that it's also a little bit reminiscent to how women's bodies Have been modified too, In a sense, And so I think that I kind of like Bringing that into the work in like a whimsical way. Just kind of a cheeky fuck you almost Because a lot of the time too that's how I think it feels to like Be a lady; Be a woman, whatever. I think that sometimes it does feel like Okay, I'm literally just like A vessel, Or I'm literally just perceived as that. Not to get super into it But like, I do do get into it.
A lot of the work is almost kind of taking this idea Of objectification, whatever, And almost pushing it to the point Where it's hyperbolic. Hyperbole is actually One of my bigger words when I think about my work. I want it to be exaggerated And extreme.
PW: DO YOU FEEL LIKE ART HISTORY PLAYS A ROLE IN YOUR PAINTING PRACTICE?
MS:
I think about art history a lot. I've been thinking a lot about Vermeer and Bouguereau a lot too… Bouguereau is a magician. A lot of the painters that I reference, to me, are like magicians. I really love a painting when I have no idea how the fuck someone made it. The thing that I love about painting is that it's not time based and that it's real. When you're standing in front of a painting in a museum, it's just you and the object and you almost have to relinquish any expectation you have for yourself or that object– you really connect with this act of creation. It's the most human thing in the world. I think painting is just so intensely human in a really cool way. I've been looking at some of these older Baroque period pieces because it feels like that was the first time that painters were really looking with intention to emulate not only the subject's humanity, but getting in touch with their own humanity.
PW: YOU’VE REFERENCED THE CONCEPT OF EGO IN YOUR PRACTICE, CAN YOU TALK TO US ABOUT THAT?
MS:
Sometimes I feel like I need to push a painting into a realm that I'm comfortable with rather than let the painting be the painting and I don’t think that’s a good thing. Does that make sense? Sometimes I will work a painting to death and it becomes this lifeless thing. I think my ego is still tied to my work sometimes and I'm trying to cut that cord. I don't think painting should be about ego at all. I think good art is relinquishing your ego– you're surrendering it. I also think with the ubiquity of the internet and Instagram, these things have really changed the scope of painting and have made it more complicated and removed us from the humanity of painting. It has instilled more of an ego to it… just generally. I'm not saying that's right or wrong. That's just how I feel with my own practice. When I'm making something, it's weird because it almost sounds counterintuitive, but I think that when I'm making a painting, I definitely feel like sometimes I allow myself to become more concerned with my own skill or my own ability or proving something to somebody else or proving something to myself.
PW: WHAT DOES BEING AN ARTIST OF YOUR TIME MEAN TO YOU?
MS:
I think it is a progression. I think it is the progression of your medium. I think that painting is liberation from suffering. I think all real art is liberation from suffering. There's this narrative that artists are supposed to suffer… we've all heard it. We're all artists and we've all heard it and it's bullshit. Being an artist of your time is not only liberating yourself from suffering, but I also think it's about liberation from more. It's about liberating yourself from other people's influences and about truly connecting with the object and with the process and just making work that is so true– it's so much of an extension of your brain. It's authentic. There's no frills, no bullshit. That's what it means to me right now.
PW: NO REAL QUESTION HERE, JUST IN CONVERSATION ABOUT THE ROLE OF THE VIEWER AND THE FEMALE FORM.
MS:
All my paintings were super about Confronting the viewer with the actual gaze of the subject. I'm looking at the viewer and that was super important to me Because I wanted to be like “I know you're fucking looking at me”. I didn't want to be passive because I think that's a lot of the time what the female gaze is. A lot of these figures in art history, the reason they come off as pornographic or sort of scandalized is because they are just waiting for someone to happen upon them. I just want to make sure my figures feel active or that they're aware. It's almost like they are aware of the intrinsic voyeurism of painting- of being the subject. But despite that, It's almost like I want there to be a choice.
But I also want it to engage and I also want people to think “that's beautiful but it's fucking weird”. But that's the thing too, so many times I've shown people my work and they're like “oh yeah she has amazing tits” and it's just kind of like “okay cool that's not the fucking point”, but whatever. But I'm almost kind of like “yeah you should think that, and you should also think that it's super complicated and super weird and I'm like yeah, look beyond the surface!
