Stephanie Morgan | Stephanie Dawn Scott Morgan | Fani M
LaFuerzaCreativa | the Creative Force
― Victor Hugo,
The Hunchback of Notre-Dame
As far back as I can remember, I’ve had a force within to create. As a little girl, I dismantled and painted various things. My grandparents weren’t thrilled with these activities. That energy later went into drawing and painting. Animals, plants, and faces were my favorites.
When my children were very young, I found it difficult to have time to create. But the energy was building inside me. I started painting in the only hours left in the day after taking care of 4 babies and the household…midnight to 6:00 am. I used watercolors because they dried fast, required less setup and I could paint two at a time, a paintbrush in one hand, and a blow dryer in the other. The paintings at that time were about the love I felt for my sons. A whole series of mothers and babies.
By 2018 I had been married twice with children. I had a nice comfortable life but felt increasingly restless and unfulfilled. I needed to explore a different life and find out about this denied energy inside me.
As my life changed, so did my art. When I moved to Mexico it was a very complex, stressful time in my life. For the first time, I was living solely for myself, by myself. I was struggling with the adjustments and my creative energy was building.
During this challenging time, I started to paint and write things I hadn’t before. My first painting took a year to complete. I called it Estoy Aqui because I wanted to express what I was feeling, that “I am not nothing” I am here. It expresses energy, growth, & sensuality, a freedom I was feeling and finally able to portray.
It is primarily about speaking out against oppression, predators, and the entities that would keep us silent. We, especially women, have to realize that our silence only perpetuates other’s control of our lives. By speaking out by whatever means we have, our voice, writing, and art, we can shine a light on things that need to be revealed and changed. Most of the time the ability to speak out requires a change within ourselves. I had to come to a place where I wasn’t afraid of my art and the expression of deep feelings. I could not be silent, devoured, or ignored anymore.
By sharing my voice with my art I hope other people will hear the same message within their hearts. You are not nothing, you have the right and the ability to be yourself. You are not obligated to silence yourself to please others. You have a duty to yourself and the world to create, to shine out loud, honestly, with your intelligence, your energy, and your strength.
I am still learning to find my voice to express things that might not feel comfortable to other people. But I look in the mirror and have to please only myself. I ask the question, “Am I honest, am I real?” Especially in the creation of my art, have I done the best I can do? If “Yes!”, then it is enough.
Stephanie Dawn Scott Morgan
