Morgan L. Cash

Artist's Statement :

    Pursuing Fine Art feels like a mere fluke to me sometimes. At first glance, I had no other reasoning for art other
than it was always my favorite class since grade school. I continued a focus in art classes in high school,
taking up to the highest level I could. Maybe because the expectations of art were so different from academic classes, to an extent. Throughout my life, I doodled of course. Filled numerous sketchbooks with nonsense, spent hours tracing Lion King and X-Men coloring books. It wasn't until my senior year in high school that I began to feel a fondness towards specific mediums. Every trip to the library, I sat down at a computer and clicked around in Microsoft Paint until I produced a child-like, but complete image. It was where some of my first taste for digital art
appeared. I completed computer art classes in college, completely peaking my interest. Dreams of being a graphic artist, an illustrator, or video game designer flooded my head. But I was still unsure of my path, still unsure of where my inspirations came from. I had my own ideas, as everyone does, of how I defined art and what I saw it to be. I watched friends spill their hearts onto canvases, their inner turmoils creating intricate breathtaking designs. I continued to dabble in Adobe Photoshop and whatever free digital painting software I could find, but I felt no real direction in art.  

    I finally caught what felt like a once in a lifetime chance when my cousin contacted me. She had seen some of my digital work and wanted me to illustrate a children's book she had written. I was terrified and excited and despite my fear of the unknown I took the opportunity. I was not yet at the practiced level I wished to be when I started working on the book, but it was a wonderful learning process for me. I completed the book using Adobe Photoshop and designed the overall book with Adobe InDesign. Holding the final product in my hand still made me extremely proud of my accomplishment, flaws and all. I hope to continue illustrating a series from the book, and branch out to a few other areas as well.

    I also enjoy working in charcoal. I am not a fan of painting but recently completed works that I became fond of, so I might practice more in the future. I am currently working on a visual journal, and what I am calling an "ink-book." My goal is to fill a (rather large) sketchbook with ink drawings. I have started out
with ballpoint pen, and may eventually explore other inks.