2024 MFA THESIS EXHIBITION
CAMILLE MOREHEAD

JANUARY 11 - FEBRUARY 23, 2024

I am an abstract painter working in collage, repetition, and modularity. I’m interested in grids, patterns, stacking, and layering. Color, surface, text, and material play an important function in the work. I’m interested in the cyclical nature of trends, and how certain motifs repeat themselves out of context. One such repeating motif is the alternating squares of color known as check pattern. The earliest known use of the pattern has been found in Egyptian hieroglyphs and pottery. In the 7th century, A predecessor of the game of chess, called “Shah” used the same pattern that is still used for the game of chess today. The black and white check pattern experienced a resurgence of popularity in the 1970s and ‘80s, seen in patterns used in clothing, furniture design, and decor. Drawing from my background in graphic design, I use ideas about composition hierarchy and text to lead the viewer in the process of seeing. I am interested in the propagation of imagery, the juxtaposition of unlikely sources, which at times lead to the breakdown of meaning, and at other times, to alchemy and synthesis. When something is copied or repeated, it obscures the original intent. When a word is repeated so many times that it loses meaning, a new word emerges. The same can be said of images - hyper visual saturation leads to destabilization of ascribed meaning. Using recurring motifs such as pattern, grid, borders, I’m creating parameters within which the imagery lives.

The imagery in my work refers to subcultural, pop, and internet influences. However, this work is also deeply personal and autobiographical. My paternal grandmother, Ruth Morehead, was a well-known illustrator for Hallmark Cards in the 1970’s and ‘80s. Known for her saccharine depictions of cute children, angels, and baby animals with big heads and even bigger eyes, her work ethic and success had an impact on me as a child. My grandmother’s illustrations are copied and reshared as a sparkly angel GIPHY, or recycled for the Instagram grid, using a smiling puppy with a text pairing about self care. Seeing this familiar imagery propagated across the internet devoid of its original context feels uncanny. It feels like unexpectedly bumping into someone you know in a place you’re not expecting.

This moment of discordance calls to our collective experience on the internet - the nature of images or information spreading online without a clear source. I have been incorporating and embedding some of this imagery as a way of processing the surreal effects of migratory meaning. Much of the content we see online is unmoored of context, swimming around in a soup of ambivalence.

Camille Morehead (1989) is a painter, graphic designer, and educator living in Fairfield, IA. She holds an MFA in Painting (2024) from Maharishi International University, and a BFA in graphic design (2014) from Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Upcoming exhibitions include the MFA thesis exhibition at Wege Center for the Arts in Fairfield, Iowa. She teaches K-12 Art at Maharishi School in Fairfield, IA.