Today we’d like to introduce you to Amanda Morie.
Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
An artist doesn’t start creating art at a certain age, an artist starts creating art since the day that they are born. Every single moment of time is complied and applied to our being and shapes us to whom we are becoming today, in the present and slowly into the future. My dad once told me that we are all works of art; the color that we put on our canvas is the color that we choose from the people, situations, conversations and energy that is all around us becoming the most vibrant, vivacious stunning works of art.
Growing up in Canada, I always felt the itch to travel. Maybe it was from this advice from my parents to learn as much as possible from everyone/thing around me. In my early twenties, I published a limited edition book called “Along the Lines… of My Thoughts,” and it dissected how I created positive situations and thinking into my daily life, turning dreams into goals and then goals into realities- yet I slowly felt stuck.
I had a studio, I was teaching, I was modeling for a clothing brand in Canada and walking for Fashion Weeks and Miss Universe, yet I still had my continued itch to travel more and more. Five years ago, I took the leap and started my journey. Having traveled to every single continent and now over 80 countries I met so many incredible people, saw many places I have once dreamed about, drinking plenty of wine and seeing the most stunning sunsets has left me to truly absorb all aspects of life and spark the creativity to the most beautiful artworks.
If I didn’t start traveling I would not have found my love for Miami. Miami has once been a place I didn’t much love the first time I traveled there, but slowly over time as I traveled to more and more places, I realized the culture, the delicious blue waters, vibrant, beautiful people and Art Deco buildings are where I belong and I am so grateful that my travels have lead me back to Miami because I can’t imagine another place to call home.
We’d love to hear more about your art.
Lying wide awake at night, I would sketch the various shadows on the roof that surrounded me. I couldn’t sleep much as a kid because I had a fascination with literature and traveling as I played the flute professionally a Youth Symphony Orchestra in Canada. Studying the constant change in shadow vs light was something that I loved to do and I soon started to grapple with the idea of what would everything look like as if it were a painting or sketch?
When I was 15, I won my first award in art, which was a painting I entered for a Red Cross Canada campaign, which resulted in me having a solo traveling exhibition across the province of Alberta, Canada. I never thought I would become an artist because at that point in time in my life I was solely focused on music and playing professionally for a Symphony in Canada. After I graduated university, galleries in NYC started to embrace my artworks and offering me solo and group exhibitions. That is how it all started.
In my professional opinion, art is here to build up the human spirit, and when it does this, it builds up a culture. There is over a billion people in the world and at least someone will enjoy the art that you make. I like to think of my paintings to be very clean and minimalistic, the sort of clean that if you were to look at them, they would make you feel like all your worries are going to wash away, all the chaos of the day can stop and here you can gather your thoughts, tidy them up and put them in a little bin, having a moment to focus on the best, most positive things in life, all the things that we should be grateful for.
What do you think about conditions for artists today? Has life become easier or harder for artists in recent years? What can cities like ours do to encourage and help art and artists thrive?
I think the biggest challenge the artist is faced with today is the big question for us all- but particularly for artists because it’s more pressing –is, essentially, can we balance the need for communication and our private lives in social media? Then there is the question of education in general and art education in particular. Why is it that a society that largely communicates through visual media then deprives generation of young people of an arts education? To do so essentially produces a visual illiteracy so people can’t understand or read the world as it “truly” is as an art form before social media. Not only that it brings it back to my first question, where does the balance of communication and private life come into play? I think you would agree with me that these are all thoughts and questions not only artists have acquired.
Nonetheless, as artists, complicated and tricky is the beginning to separate the two because art is a form of communication and in this day in age social media is overtaking the main streams of showing art, dissolving the private life. As artists, we feel the need to keep our followers up to date with our day to day lives and show them “who” we are. But is this necessary? Yes, it has helped artists share their work to a larger crowd of people and can assist in creating more sales, which is a positive.
However, regardless of the world of social media, we still need to communicate. Yet no one is willing to pick up a phone and call. What about postcards or letters? Are these an art form of the past? Should we expect a selfie-and voice message in messenger as the new postcard or letter? If an artist is formulating their art ideologies from the day they are born how do we expect art to take a turn 10 to 20 to 50 years from now based off these societal norms the world is now creating? Can cities establish a safe place for artists to thrive and work together to become successful in career and art education? I think Miami is one of the only cities that does establish a safe net for artists. I never felt so free an part of a community like I do here in Miami.
How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
I am currently represented by Artist Lane Gallery throughout Australia, New Zealand, UK, and USA as well as Icanvas (for Apple), NYA Gallery which has six galleries across Manhattan, NYC in conjunction with 1stdibs who is also in partnership with Sotheby’s NYC. My artworks are also carried at LIFE IX Design NYC.
As for magazines, People USA represents my artworks in their celebrity shop. In these summer months of 2019, Vogue UK has chosen my artworks for their interior design section for the “Vogue’s Gallery” and Vanity Fair UK for their “IT LIST” must-have items for the summer. Chanel, The House of Coco, has also hand-selected me as a top #womenworldwide in business for their summer edition and will be in stores in Paris, France.
The Block televisions show in Australia as well as Rachel Ray Show in USA both carries my artworks in their show shop. Since I have been heavily traveling these past few years, as a result I have started to take on more of commercial and private commissions such as artworks completed for restaurants in Italy, in office towers in Sydney, hotels in the USA. If you’re a collector looking for a specific artwork or collection for your home, space or for a gift for a loved one, I would be happy to create the perfect artwork for you.
Nominated for awards like the German Design Award in Berlin and for Best Realist and Abstract Artist by the Middle Eastern Art Awards in Dubai in 2017, I have had countless exhibitions internationally in countries like UAE, Japan, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, UK, Canada, USA, Colombia, Mexico, Nicaragua, New Caledonia, Uruguay, Spain, Portugal, Greece and France. Some of my favourite exhibitions have been for Armani at the Burj Khalifa in 2017, the Carousel de Louvre and at the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France in 2013, Scope Miami 2015, and NYFW and NY ArtExpo 2012.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.amandamorie.com
- Email: hello@amandamorie.com
- Instagram: @amandamorie
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