Muse: Brooke Noel Morgan
When I pay attention, living becomes alive: the candlelight dancing across the room is a beautiful moment in which all is well in my soul, and trials become doors through which I can access new ways of being.
images by me on Brooke’s camera
I remember the moment I met Brooke. She was curating art and lifestyle pieces through Nomad Collective and had a show room in East Nashville and the raw yet refined aesthetic there felt like a ray of light in a market full of mass-produced, trendy pieces which seemed to lack soul. Her space was filled with well-placed treasures like old indigo kimonos from Japan, hand woven stools from Morocco and the most lush sheepskins from a man she met in Kenya. Her laid back, natural vibe permeated the place and it felt good, in a way that is difficult to explain in words.
Brooke lives a raw authenticity in every cell of her body and every crevice of her being. It is deeply inspiring to me and my hope with this Muse piece is to share the inspiration towards a more real, surrendered & fully awake life that our friendship has given me.
Brooke and I have forged a friendship over many cups of tea, meanderings in the woods and inspiring conversation. One of my favorite retreats is to go to her place for a cup of coffee. Watching her slowly grind the spices and beans, boil the milk in the one big copper pot in her kitchen and sweeten the concoction with half and half and honey is a meditation in and of itself.
Steep or brew a cup and join me in conversation with Brooke Noel Morgan!
I see the hand of divine love at work through the fires of life: that perceived setbacks can be tremendous gifts, that delays or detours can lead to timely opportunities otherwise obsolete, and that rejection isn’t personal…
ME: How would you describe your ethos, what belief guides you?
BNM:If I had to distill the ethos of my life, I’d say it’s the art of noticing. This practice requires presence of mind, body and spirit…and it infiltrates every facet of living. When I pay attention, living becomes alive: the candlelight dancing across the room is a beautiful moment in which all is well in my soul, and trials become doors through which I can access new ways of being. It’s not always easy to pay attention to the essential things though, especially with the demands of modern life as a single, self-employed parent and the vacuous distractions of the modern world. But I’ve found that life, in her infinite wisdom, continually reminds me and gives me the opportunity to practice, especially when I’ve strayed a bit too far from my true self. When the ego is in charge, this can feel punitive, unfair, or inconvenient…but my higher self can zoom out to see the hand of divine love at work through the fires of life: that perceived setbacks can be tremendous gifts, that delays or detours can lead to timely opportunities otherwise obsolete, and that rejection isn’t personal…it’s direction…and often protection of our most precious self.
Quality sleep, nourishing food and space to create are my lifelines, so I try to protect those as best I can.
ME: How do you view practice, ritual or the cultivation of life? What inspires you to become?
BNM: We are seasonal beings - nothing is permanent, and everything changes, all the time. This is the wisdom of many teachers who have come before us, and it is the wisdom of our greatest teacher - Mother Earth. And like nature, my practices and rituals tend to ebb and flow with the season I’m in. I’ve spent the last year growing a new business as a full time artist, and many of my formal rituals have taken a back seat to the more immersive practice of life - resting in motion, finding moments of joy and reprieve in the process of whatever I may be doing. Quality sleep, nourishing food and space to create are my lifelines, so I try to protect those as best I can.
Formal practices like meditation, yoga therapy, breathwork, tea ceremony, walks in the woods, journaling, and contemplative reading have been invaluable to me in the throes of grief, when my body needed significant attention.
ME: How have you seen your practices impact your life in a practical sense?
BNM: There have certainly been more adverse periods when I was forced to prioritize healing, and I’m so grateful for those who helped me create anchors to guide the healing process. Formal practices like meditation, yoga therapy, breathwork, tea ceremony, walks in the woods, journaling, and contemplative reading have been invaluable to me in the throes of grief, when my body needed significant attention.
But life is like the ocean tide, it ebbs and flows, so I try to stay open and pay attention to what is needed at a given time and let everything else go. Usually, my body and my child know the way and speak up when I’m off track. If I’m out of flow, too preoccupied with work or pushing too hard - which has historically been a pattern - I’m usually granted a reset, which may come in the form of sickness, pain in my body, stagnation, anxiety, rigidity, irritability, a broken computer or a child acting out. Now, I see these warning signs as kind invitations to get grounded, get quiet, and take care of myself, so that I can be present for my own life.
Once I get started, one move informs the next and the next and the next…and I enter a beautiful dance between action and surrender, conscious and subconscious movement - a true metaphor for life.
ME: What is your creative process specifically with your art?
BNM: My creative process is always changing, always evolving, so it’s rather difficult to describe. At the moment, it looks like: wake up, get quiet, get started, and pay attention. Art making is inherently meditative and what happens on the canvas is usually contingent upon my spiritual condition…especially since my process is intuitive, spontaneous, and unplanned. Discovery and curiosity are my guiding intentions, so it’s important to approach the work empty of preconceived notions of what may or may not happen. Once I get started, one move informs the next and the next and the next…and I enter a beautiful dance between action and surrender, conscious and subconscious movement - a true metaphor for life. I’ve been working with water in my paintings for the last year I’d say, and it’s been such a wonderful lesson in surrender and getting out of the way of the work. The paintings are here to inform me, to teach me and often tell me something I cannot conceive with the conscious, strategic mind. This is why I make art. It’s a spiritual, wordless practice that brings me so much peace, so much joy - and I’m so happy that I get to share it! When someone resonates with the work, it’s just such a beautiful experience because they are connecting with something in me, and I am connecting with something in them. Because we are all the same, after all, in that we’re humans having this shared earthly experience. It’s powerful, the way art can connect us to one another. I’m so happy I get to make art, what a privilege - I truly can’t imagine doing anything else.
ME: What is art to you?
BNM:To me, art is a way of being and the reason for living…it’s what brings beauty and meaning to life. It’s the birth of newborn leaves on the trees in springtime, it’s the light at dusk dancing across the wall, it’s a song or a heartfelt conversation or a gentle touch from a loved one that makes us feel grateful to be alive…really, it’s whatever touches our sacred core and helps us remember that life is beautiful and wonderful and hard and everything in between…and that love is what ultimately sustains us… and in the end, the only thing that matters.
ME: Which artist or a piece of art has had the most significant impact on you?
BNM: It’s hard to pinpoint a singular piece of art or an artist who has most influenced me…there’s just too many to name. Whether a painting, a song, an interior space, a piece of poetry, an aging leaf or a sunset…whatever moves me is what I pay attention to, and I discard the rest.
A poem…
In him
I see me
In her
A stirring
Of truth
That we
Are all
The same
No one
To blame
Just love
Each part
A quiet tending
The garden
Of the heart
Til wholeness
Becomes us still
-Brooke Noel Morgan
ME: Tell me about tea and coffee… How do they fold into your life?
BNM: I love coffee, and I love tea. During my period of intensive healing a couple years ago, I only drank tea. I made my own chai every morning and it was such a beautifully grounding practice. Tea is gentle, easier on the body. It really is medicine. More yin, more feminine than coffee. It’s best when I’m anxious or stressed or physiologically compromised. I really do enjoy both though! But I can only have coffee when I have a solid baseline of health. I definitely go through seasons with each of them - at the moment, I love spiced coffee with heavy cream and honey. It’s a warm and wonderful treat that I love waking up to. When it gets warm, I’ll turn to iced matcha - my favorite afternoon indulgence in the summertime.
Tea is gentle, easier on the body. It really is medicine. More yin, more feminine than coffee. It’s best when I’m anxious or stressed or physiologically compromised.
ME: What one thing do you wish for humanity? What is one thing you would love for everyone to wake up to?
BNM: Themselves….looking deeply into the core of our own wounding would transform the world. We’re so quick to blame and look outside of ourselves for answers and explanations - myself included. But the vast wisdom of the Universe is within us. We have so much power to heal by going within! If we all did the difficult work of healing, the world would be a more loving and compassionate place. And we’d realize that our similarities far outweigh our differences.
ME: How can we experience your work?
BNM: I mostly share my work at shows, where I get to create the art and the actual gallery space where it lives and breathes. It’s so much fun because I love creating the space as much as the actual artworks themselves. I’m heading to the Round Top Antique Show next week where I’ll have a gallery at an awesome venue called The Horseshoe! I’ll be there with my new body of work from March 14-30. I do this show twice a year - Fall & Spring. Otherwise, my studio in East Nashville is open by appointment, and I have select pieces available on 1st Dibs. My website or IG is a great place to get a feel for things.
@brookenoelmorgan
www.brookenoelmorgan.com
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