Brooke Noel Morgan
RESONATE SANCTUARY
About Brooke
I am an artist who has been living in the shadows for the majority of my life. Until just under a year ago when the aftermath of a broken marriage sent me into a new season of introspection. I have spent the past year processing, and art has truly saved my life. It is the space...the sacred journey where I have met myself and the divine in a profoundly new way. At my core, I am an artist, and I will be an artist….for the rest of my life.
I am also a teacher, a curator, and the founder of Nomad Collective - a brand I began in 2014 - as a way to support artists and artisans from around the world. At the end of 2018, I opened The Abode - an offshoot of Nomad Collective - as a place for soulful living and a showroom for the talented NC community. Now, it is my residence, refuge, and studio...and also a space that I share with others. I host gatherings, curate interiors, and support artists from The Abode. It is a multi-faceted brand, tethered by one underlying mission: Finding home within.
How do you start your morning?
I hug and kiss my four year old son, August, who is calling my name
(Ma-meeeee!!!) and playfully hiding under the covers...unless he comes and jumps on me first...I make coffee, and I sit on my sofa for a while. Sometimes I close my eyes, sometimes I meditate, sometimes I pet my cat, sometimes I chat with my son...every time I pray...and surrender my day, asking for the light of God to shine upon me. There is a beautiful tree in the front yard that I can see through the window...on it is a giant knot that looks like an eye. I like to think of it as the eye of God watching over us. I really connect with trees...they’re an integral part of my work and my spiritual life. So sometimes, I just sit and stare at the tree and see what she whispers to me that day.
After that, I write about whatever comes to mind...and I read something spiritually uplifting. Often it’s a newsletter called Bowl of Saki, a series of excerpts by Hazrat Inayat Khan. Right now, I’m reading through The Artist’s Way. And it’s led the way through a powerfully transitional time in my life and my work. Then, I write some more...and/or head down to the studio, open the garage door, and see where the wind blows.
free flow
I just wrote this today...while walking around the neighborhood with my son. It’s the bookend to what I hope will be my first solo exhibition as an artist. I’m calling it “As It Turns Out”...
I am the paradox
The One
I always feared
The great expanse
Between earth
And sky
The space
Between night
And day
I am the time
Between birth
And life
The mess
Between death
And decay
I am the bridge
Between black
And white
Yes
I am the gray
I am the line
Between moon
And sun
The dust
Between stars
And space
I am the cloud
Between you
And me
And I rest
Now
Within this place
“it’s a very fluid spiritual process...a series of subconscious decisions, a beautiful dance between listening and being led.
The colors, the tools, the layers...all depend on what I’m trying to unlock, trying to understand.”
How does your home reflect your inner world?
I think my home reflects how I want to feel and who I want to be. Also, how I want others to feel when they come through the door. It is calm, peaceful, earthy, unpretentious, modest, and neutral...a bit rugged, yet also refined...and full of handcrafted furnishings and art from around the world. To me, it feels like the depths of the ocean beneath the waves...which is where I prefer to live, so it makes sense that my home would be a mirror for my interior life...deep, rich, soulful, and also full of natural light.
What does your creative process look like when starting a new piece?
It depends. On the medium, on the day, and on where I am in my development. My creative process in the realm of visual art has been largely experimental up until this point. Now, I believe that I’ve turned a corner in my approach to the canvas. There is a newfound intentionality that I’m excited to play with. It starts with a thought or an idea that I want to explore....then comes the cutting of raw canvas followed by the first coat - usually white or black. From there, it’s a very fluid spiritual process...a series of subconscious decisions, a beautiful dance between listening and being led. The colors, the tools, the layers...all depend on what I’m trying to unlock, trying to understand. I talk to my pieces, and they tell me where to go and when to stop. It is a raw, intuitive process.
Much like my writing. I don’t decide when to start a new poem. It always starts itself...usually when I’m walking or driving or washing the dishes. I do a lot of drafting and editing in my head. What comes out on the page is quite often the final draft. I suppose I approach curating an interior space in the same way. How does the space want to feel? What does it want to say? Who does it want to be? Renovating The Abode was truly a practice in presence, taking one step, making one decision at a time. One element leading to the next, to the next, and to the next. Pausing often to look around and see how it feels before it gets too far out in front of me. So yeah, I guess there is a common approach or process between the three - and really, it’s all poetry to me.
How do you end your day?
With quiet, candlelight, lavender oil and a book. Lately, I’ve been going back and forth between Rumi and the biography of Georgia O’Keefe. Once my eyes get heavy, and the lavender kicks in, I turn out the lights, curl up under my cool linen sheets, and thank God that I get to see the end of another beautiful day.
