Julia Morgan & Michaela Macasinag
Location: Enclosure located near 2850 Baseline Rd (Enclosure west of building, visible from the westbound off ramp of Highway 36 and baseline)
Photo by Peter Kowalchuk
All Alone Together/ Covid Catharsis/ Isolation Celebration / Recluse Reunion are just some of the many titles that came to mind for our collaborative piece as we worked on it. This mural is a meditation on the ongoing pandemic, and whispers tales of separation, reunion, catharsis and healing through the characters portrayed. They lean in and away from one another, sharing connection and isolation simultaneously. Over the past year and a half of covid-19, intimacy and love have run parallel with fear and division, as social distance has affected our relationships offline and amplified those online. The inter-web (internet) is a prime example of this intense paradox, with its capacity to deepen both connection and divisiveness on the same platforms. Our mural speaks to these dualities and the resilience we as individuals and societies have undergone in the midst of the past years' immense global change. We’re all alone together! And all together even if we don’t want to be, due to our seeming opposites and distances that expand between mentalities and hearts in our polarized political climate. Our breadth of experience, spectrum of relationships and variety of connections to each other and our world, are what create beauty, harmony and balance out of chaos and incongruencies. This piece was birthed through the intention to create a pictorial example of this process, and to give viewers a reminder that they're never truly alone.
Artist Statement:
Julia Morgan (Aerose) is a multimedia artist and muralist based out of Humboldt County, CA. Her work is a celebration of the eternal now, and empowered individuals thriving within it. Through painting, street art, video and fiber works, she explores human connection, nostalgia, and the inner landscapes that inhabit us all. Her work aims to envelope the mind and gaze of the viewer in the same way that we are held by feeling, each other and the cradling universe within which we dwell; encouraging the viewer to exist in the spaces between mind and matter, dreams and reality. Through painting large-scale public artworks, change in ourselves and the world is proven possible. Driven to make art accessible to all, Aerose utilizes street art to realize this vision. Her public art practice is built around empowerment, self-actualization and emancipation of the viewer through creative enhancement of their communities. Through street art, Aerose has collaborated with communities and organizations working to enact social change in realms of feminism, food justice, mental health, education, and human rights, and has had the pleasure to learn from and connect with communities in these neighborhoods through the process. Aerose’s murals interrupt and add to passerby's daily experience by providing colorful windows into alternate realities, and incite critical thought, introspection and inspiration. The ultimate impulse behind her public work is to provide momentary liberation for the viewer from their day, their mind or their society by sharing with them the same alternate view she has creating new worlds, narratives and characters out of paint.
Artist Statement:
Michaela Macasinag is an interdisciplinary artist originally from Aurora, Colorado. She is a womxn of color who identifies as demisexual and is currently in a polyamory domestic partnership. After recently graduating with a BFA in Drawing from Metropolitan State University of Denver, Michaela has split her time curating art spaces for Cafe 1219 and 5135 Gallery in Denver, working on Planet Numina at Meow Wolf and creating a jewelry line called Chey Creates. Her art practice primarily revolves around ideas of sexuality, gender and the womxn body. Her BFA thesis consisted of a series of vulva gazing portraits printed onto large format silk sheets, and hung on dowels that surrounded the viewer. She has continued to explore themes of sexuality through her art practice, and in doing so, has learned to accept herself outside of a heteronormative, patriarchal chokehold.
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