Start Seeing Your World In Color!
About the Artist:
Moriah Swick was raised just west of Chapel Hill, NC on a 22 acre oasis of forests, streams, fruit trees, animals, and flower gardens. She spent most of her childhood outdoors, building forts in the woods, chasing butterflies, and painting anything she could find. Her earliest art influence was a book of Maurice Sendak’s “Where The Wild Things Are” which was given to her as a child and looked through often.
In 1996 while painting her first mural in a restaurant in Graham, NC Moriah found that she loved the large scale of mural painting which is now a large part of her current business Butterfly Paint. When asked why she became an artist, Moriah replies, "I have always been an artist. I love the fact that art has no creative limits and anything is possible. I can also learn a great deal about the world through the ancestry of art and its place in my own family."
She is most excited by the chance to transform an ordinary bedroom into a magical kingdom, jungle, Dr Seus book, or Sports Stadium and does so through her wall murals as well as furniture design and accessories. Of her work, the artist says that different viewers see many different things in her work. Some have a particular favorite that reminds them of a place they’ve been to or other elements they can relate to personally. Moriah describes her work as nostalgic, outdoorsy, and magical. "I think people also like the naïve illustrative style of my work," says Moriah. "It may take them back to the mystery of being a child again."
Pottery is a fairly new adventure for Moriah as she completed her first piece in early 2008. This new artistic love has consumed most of her free art time since her wonderful husband Lance bought her a kiln for her birthday. She is hopes to open her own public studio in Durham in 2012 where she will bring in other local artists to form a co-op style teaching and gallery space for all ages.
If you want to get her talking, ask Moriah about her recent Peacock themed Wedding in the Bahamas which she did all the event planning and decorating and gift making. Her favorite elements were the hand painted parasols, live butterfly release, and custom champagne flutes.
Moriah currently resides in Durham County and her work appears in local commercial locations such as 171 Hair Studio and The Library on Franklin Street CH, Chesson Laboratories conference room, in many homes throughout the area, and with various private clients. She has exhibited her work in various local galleries in Chatham, Orange, and Alamance Counties.