Drawing the Canada-Wide Science Fair : Megan Morman

Drawing the Canada-Wide Science Fair is a collective of sixteen artists who have come together to interpret and play with the spectacle of a national science fair through visual language. By drawing on-site during the Canada-Wide Science Fair, the artists will create and immediately broadcast drawings of selected projects on display. The idea is to expand the notion of drawing around science themes to include the potentials of visual priority, cross-disciplinary work, collaborative drawing, multi-perspectival drawing, non-precious drawing, interactions with people, live tweeting, 5-second-delay blogging, and other unexpected possibilities. Here’s an introduction to Megan Morman, Canada-Wide Science Fair Artist.

Garry-Lewis James Osterberg 2012
©Megan Morman

I grew up in a small town in rural Minnesota, and moved to Canada in 1997 to study Sociology and Gender Studies at the University of Saskatchewan. After graduation I worked as a community organizer and freelance graphic designer; from 2007 until 2012 I was employed as Communications & Volunteer Coordinator at AIDS Saskatoon, and served as chair of the board of PAVED Arts from 2010-12. In 2012 I moved to Lethbridge, AB.

Saskatoon Art Crossword 2012
©Megan Morman

Much of my recent practice wrestles with questions of belonging and “recognition by one’s peers”: How does a person become an artist, and how do we best perform our roles as art community members? I’m particularly interested in cultural and academic communities, and the ways that group membership is established informally through storytelling, gossip, and play. My educational background in sociology and professional experience in communications make me keen to examine to role of artists in building artistic audiences and communities.

Even when it deals with art/disciplinary issues, it’s important to me that my work also be accessible to and engaging of people outside the art community.  My work–most recently, portraits and wordgames–is colourful and frequently incorporates humour and feelings of naughtiness, as well as a sense of irony and self-deprecation. I’m interested in practically everything, and my art reflects (and focuses and magnifies) my awkward, fannish enthusiasm.

Vincent (Montreal/Peterborough) 2012
©Megan Morman