the places we become
Photograph by Megan Maloy
Arts 14C photographer-in-residence https://meganmaloy.com/
Room to Begin
Sometimes stepping away from everyday life brings you closer to your work. My time at Arts 14C gave me room to experiment, follow unexpected ideas, and stay with a piece long enough to see where it might lead. It became one of the most productive stretches I’ve had in years and opened up possibilities I’m still exploring.
The Places we become
Away from home, I found myself thinking about how the places we inhabit become part of us. Windows, stairways, subway reflections, and unfamiliar rooms entered my work, overlapping with figures and fragments of other images.
The boundary between a person and her surroundings began to blur. A room could hold a memory; a reflection could suggest another version of someone. These works grew from that uncertain space between where we are and what we carry with us.
Nothing Quite Goes to Waste
I brought years of accumulated materials into the studio: prints, drawings, proofs, unresolved works. During my residency, I reworked them into new stories.
Their previous lives remain visible, returning altered and sometimes in unexpected company. This process is physical and intuitive, and I am drawn to unpredictable results that emerge when fragments are brought together.
Plants recur throughout, often literally transplanted from one work into another. Their persistence and ability to take root in unfamiliar surroundings connect otherwise separate pieces. Color also travels across fragments, creating both harmony and friction while allowing beauty, vulnerability, and unease to coexist.
Figures, plants, patterns, and architectural fragments touch and overlap while retaining separate histories. Together they reflect how we continually assemble ourselves from the places, relationships, and earlier versions of ourselves that we carry forward.
A Studio with an Open Door
So much of what made this time special happened between the hours of working: conversations with fellow artists, visits to other studios, and the exchange of ideas that comes from being part of a creative community.
Opening my studio to visitors brought another kind of discovery. After spending so much time inside the work, I got to see what other people noticed, what drew them closer, and where a conversation might begin. Thank you to everyone who stopped in, spent time with the work, or shared a little of their own story.
one last conversation
Filmmaker Miranda Fallon visited during JCAST Open Studios and returned the next day to record a conversation with me. An unexpected and lovely way to close my time at Arts 14C.
Coming Home, Carrying More
The residency has ended, but the work it set in motion is still unfolding. I’m home with new pieces, unfinished questions, and ideas that need more time in the studio.
I went to Jersey City with boxes of materials. I came back with more than I could pack.
