Today we’d like to introduce you to Morgann Rykken.
Hi Morgann, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My story is definitely still a work in progress, but I’ve come a long way since the beginning of my journey. I grew up in Minnesota for a majority of my life, and I was always the creative and artsy kid in my classes and friend groups. I moved down to Florida in July of 2019, and when the pandemic hit, I was considered an essential worker at the two jobs I was working. One of those jobs, I was a manager at my local Michael’s Craft Store, and that time period was when I started to consider getting back into my artistic endeavors. I was seeing all these people come through the store, gathering materials for their own business they were starting since so many had gotten laid off and lost their jobs during the pandemic. I met and talked to a lot of people during my time there, and I eventually gained the confidence to start setting up a table at local art markets and pop-up events. Through those events, I made so many valuable connections and made friends who were in the local Tampa art scene, and I’ve been working on growing and expanding ever since. Recently, I’ve started to get into mural work, and I am currently an assistant to an extremely talented mural artist and fine artist (Courtney Pasterchick). I still attend art markets here and there, but murals are what I really want to get into, along with focusing on improving my own skills and my own artworks.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Absolutely not! Lol trying to make art my livelihood has been one of the biggest challenges of my life, truly, but I don’t think I would have it any other way. I am a big believer that nothing worth having comes easy, and you have to go through the hard times in order to really appreciate the good times. I don’t really know any entrepreneur who just started doing what they love and didn’t have any issues or hiccups along the way. A lot of the time you will have nights or weeks where you question and doubt yourself and all the choices you made that have led up to this point. But I trust my gut and my intuition deeply, and I know I’m on the right path for myself, because despite any struggle I’ve encountered, I’ve been able to make it through, one way or another. In 2024, I lost my corporate job and my stability (and my health insurance), had to move out of my tiny studio apartment and back in with family, and was dealing with health issues that had basically made me a medical mystery. All this happened within 6 months, and it really seemed like I wasn’t going to get a break. It was a dark time, I’m not going lie, and it forced me to do a lot of introspection and reflection. But I do think that it’s times like these that are what ultimately change your life, and you have to decide if you’re going to let it affect you negatively, or if you’re going to use this as a come-back story. I am fully convinced that I am in the process of manifesting the life that I’ve always wanted, and I’m currently building it from the ground up. The struggles I went through helped wipe my slate clean in my opinion, it gave me two options in the moment: do what’s familiar and what feels safe at the detriment of your goals and dreams, or take this opportunity to grow into the person you always wanted to be and take all the effort and energy you put into working for other people, and put that into yourself. I’m very blessed to have family and friends that believe in me, sometimes more than I believe in myself, but I wouldn’t be here without them and their support as well.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
In the broad sense, I consider myself an artist, and while I dabble it a few different artistic hobbies like drawing and jewelry making, I’m a painter mostly, and that’s the medium I present myself in. I mentioned how I’m trying to break into the mural business, but I also host a Paint & Sip at Mad Hatter’s in St. Pete, teach painting classes at the Cozy Collective in Dade City, and I’m also a part-time pet sitter in the Wesley Chapel/Tampa area. The work that I’m most proud of right now is my painting titled “The Green Girl”. It’s really a play on words, as she’s technically painted red, but she’s smoking “green” and the background is a contrasting green as well. I only used two colors to bring her to life, but I’m really proud of how she turned out. In the painting, she’s topless and you can only see her from the neck down. She’s sitting on the ground, and it’s implied she’s nude, but you can only really see her top half, while the hand holding the blunt is covering the bottom part so you can’t see anything. A lot of people’s first impression of the painting is a sexual one, which I knew would happen, but it’s not a sexual painting to me, at all. It opens up a great dialogue of what is inherently sexual, and what do we sexualize unintentionally? To me, she’s just a girl who wanted to take her bra off after a long day and smoke a blunt in the comfort of her own space. I feel like everyone, male, female or otherwise, can relate to the feeling of wanting to relax and unwind.
Green girl was what drew me into the style of art I like to create today. I like to bring beauty to the parts of us the society has deemed undesirable or “ugly” our bodies (think belly rolls or stretch marks). We all go on a journey of self acceptance, and I hope that my art will help even just one person see themselves in a new light – your body IS art, and does so much for you. Love it, and love yourself for who you are and all the unique things that are a part of you. In a world where everyone wants to look the same, be different and embrace it.
I think what sets me apart from most others is my sense of community. That’s not to say I’m the only one who cares about that – I’m not. I have so many friends in the art world that have a vision that is so similar to mine, and I find it very inspiring. But whenever I’m creating, teaching, and participating in various artistic endeavors, the questions in the back of my mind are “How can I make this accessible to more people? How can I get more people involved? How can I, in any way possible, improve even just 1 persons quality of life by introducing them to the healing that creating can bring?” In a world that seems so divided and angry, I just want to provide a little bit of light and a space where everyone can feel like they’re a part of something, where you can just show up as you are and be accepted and supported by a community of people that just want to see you thrive.
Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
I’m not going to lie, I’m a pretty open book when it comes to myself and my journey. But something surprising that only a few people in Florida probably know is that I majored in Criminology and Criminal Justice in college, and I worked at a maximum security state prison up north for a short period of time. The experiences I had during that time actually played, and continues to play, a very large role in my current ideologies and why I have the goals and dreams that I do. While studying, I learned how a sense of community, or lack there of, played a major role in the quality of life an individual could have, and that sentiment was validated by the people I met while working at the prison. It’s not the case for everyone, but a majority of individuals could have had a completely different outcome in their life if they had some sense of community, or a positive outlet; a group of people that cared about their well being and wanted them to thrive. There’s so many ways that we can provide that to the public, and art is the way that I’m choosing to do it.
Contact Info:
Image Credits
All photos taken by myself or friends
