Interview By Maia Poon
Art in all its forms is so essential for our emotional wellbeing, learning about others’ lives, and sharing our own stories. Especially now, with June 2020 being Pride Month, a pivotal moment for the Black Lives Matter movement, and in the midst of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the role of art is shifting but more important than ever. I had the opportunity to provide a platform for multidisciplinary artists and writers through online interviews, and they each had something unique to share. Keep creating!
Darcy Rose Morgan
she/her
Cartoonist, Illustrator, and Animator
@darc.la.farse
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
1. Do you feel more or less connected to your art during social isolation?
If I'm being honest, I feel a lot more disconnected from my art right now during social isolation.
2. Have you seen any noticeable changes in the subjects of your art?
I think I have noticed that previous subjects and content that I made the focus of my work are no longer interesting to me. With the huge global shifting going on right now, there's been a lot of reflection and introspection about ideas that are important to people, and I'm still trying to figure out how my art can be used to communicate those ideas/opinions.
3. Why is art important right now, with the pandemic and civil unrest around the world?
Art is critical to communicating the general outrage/fear that is being demonstrated currently, especially in the BIPOC community, to those who have otherwise been able to ignore it up until now. Speaking specifically about visual arts, while not everyone is willing to sit down and read articles/essays on the topic, everyone has the split second that it takes to register an image. And that forceful confrontation with the visual may just be the catalyst someone needed to reevaluate their entire perspective. Likewise, art is simply a unifying force, a way for everyone to rally behind an idea/symbol/etc, in order to fight together.
4. How can art be used to share typically marginalized voices?
As a member of the LGBTQIA+ community, I'm so happy to see a surge of people sharing and seeking out marginalized voices that would otherwise have been overlooked. And art can be used to capture the experiences and perspectives of these marginalized voices so that they can be understood by more people. But as a white queer woman, I think it is critical to be uplifting voices and sharing work, rather than producing work that depicts another's experience right now.