07 | Finding Your Own Rhythm with Morgan Joanel

Through The Creative Door

In this episode, Alexis is joined by Morgan Joanel, a Perth artist, musician, jewellery maker and a true versatile creative force. Alexis and Morgan explore the essence of nomadic lifestyles, discussing the significance of anchor points and how important it is to find your own rhythm in a world of noise.

They explore the dance between structure and spontaneity in the creative process and how navigating societal norms and personal boundaries can be a true challenge for every creative. Drawing from personal experiences, they reflect on how having boundaries can often feel like hitting a wall, like Morgan’s car accident, which can disrupt your journey and leave you yearning to return to where you were before. Yet, through these challenges, we often discover a profound truth: boundaries, though initially restrictive, can serve as catalysts for growth and self-discovery.

If you’d like to see more, you can follow Morgan on Instagram @morganjoanel

This episode was recorded on 6 November 2023 on the lands of the Wajuk Peoples. We hope that this episode inspires you as a creative person and as a human being.

Thanks for listening, catch you on the next episode.

Psst! We are always on the lookout for creative people to share their story and inspire others. Have you got someone in mind who would love to have a chat? Get in contact with us via Instagram @throughthecreativedoor

Links:

Disappear Music Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilaxfNNtjRU

Let’s get social:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/throughthecreativedoor/

TikToc: https://www.tiktok.com/@ttcdpodcast

CREDITS

Created and Hosted by Alexis Naylor

Music by Alexis Naylor & Ruby Miguel

Edited and Produced by Ruby Miguel

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00:08 - Alexis (Host)

Hi, my name is Alexis Naylor and I am your host here at Through the Creative Door. On behalf of myself and my guests, I would like to acknowledge the traditional owners and custodians on which this podcast is recorded and produced. We pay our respects to all First Nations people and acknowledge Elders, past and present. On this podcast, I will be chatting to an array of creative guests, getting a glimpse into their worlds and having some honest and inspiring conversations along the way. Welcome to Through the Creative Door.

00:48 - Alexis (Host)

Morgan, welcome to Through the Creative Door, morgan. Welcome to Through the Creative Door. How you going?

00:51 - Morgan (Guest)

Thank you, I am very good.

00:54 - Alexis (Host)

You have been jet-setting around. You are always jet-setting around.

00:58 - Morgan (Guest)

I feel like I don't think I was for a really long time, but recently I definitely have been, so I'm probably making up for all the time that.

01:07 - Alexis (Host)

Amazing. Yeah, yeah, just put it all.

01:11 - Morgan (Guest)

Yeah, one little container, get it all out.

01:15 - Alexis (Host)

I love it. I am so chuffed to be able to be chatting with you because I've been fangirling you from afar. I mean, when we talk about creative, you've got your fingers in all of the creative pies. I've been fangirling you for, actually, I came across your music video for Disappear.

01:42 Morgan (Guest)

The stop motion?

01:45 Alexis (Host)

Yes, yes, and I was especially because you released that during COVID?

01:46 - Morgan (Guest)

I think it actually. You know what? I think it was one month before COVID hit and I did a launch for it and I did all the PR for it, did the whole proper release, was really happy with it. And then bang. Oh yeah, so it probably got a little more airtime, because everyone's at home and I'm going to work out.

02:07 - Alexis (Host)

I wasn't going to say that. I was just saying that it felt like it was very present in the COVID time. Yeah, because.

02:12 - Morgan (Guest)

I feel like I honestly think it was February 2020. And then that next month and during that time it led to other people having seen other musicians saying “Can you do something for me?” And so when COVID hit, strangely I was inundated with all this digital work and artist work and I was like I guess I can do this stuff for other people. So some crazy good timing. Whatever happened, it happened.

02:42 - Alexis (Host)

Oh my gosh, that's so interesting. Well, for those little listening, make sure you go check out that music video, because I actually think it's quite stunning. It's very beautiful.

02:52 - Morgan (Guest)

Thank you, I very much enjoyed it. I just learned how to stop motion animate stuff for that and I plan to do more, because there's something really special about having being able to always look at it like choreographing the scene, the characters to the music, the colours, and you have the ability to print stuff at home, cut it out on paper and then make it work how you want it to work, and you can do that while you can't go outside, and it's a nice little creative thing where you just let the music come to life.

03:25 - Alexis (Host)

So good and you're. I mean, I'm just mentioning one part of your creativeness. But we're in this beautiful space of yours which you've got a piano, but you also have a sewing machine. You've got lots of beautiful little beading and things like that that I'm assuming from my time of working at a fashion jewellery company back in the day. It looks like all bits and pieces to making jewellery.

03:54 - Morgan (Guest)

It is. It sure is, and I only recently labelled it all yeah, I'll, I'll. I'll say myself a little more time.

04:02 - Alexis (Host)

So I guess it comes into the first question that I had for you, which is what does a creative space mean to you and why?

04:14 - Morgan (Guest)

I think for me I can get away with just a couple of things that are like anchor points.

04:20

So because of the travelling, because of, you know, just being in Europe and going to music festivals and then also being creative and working for a friend's fashion label, shout out to Vera Black it's like living out of a suitcase, being really far away from home and then being in someone else's creative space. That can feel like you just get swept up in the wave of other things and if you're not at home with your specific things that you usually anchor into, it's nice to have just a couple of things that you can carry with you. And so I feel like I can get away with just a few things. Definitely, colours mean a lot to me, so there's specific colours that I don't know why, but because I paint and I often link music with colours, with wording, with art styles. If I have specific like, I have like a specific sarong that I've had for ages and anytime I travel I don't need it, but I'll put that in and if I go, I'm in a hotel room

05:32

They'll just be on the pillow or hang it over something and it just it anchors you into this feeling of being at home and safe and creative. And so then you can kind of put the whatever that creative side of your is able to come out, no matter where you are. And so I used to do it where I'd take all. I'd take specific crystals, I would take very specific things because I felt like I had to have certain things, and over time you realize you just don't need as much as you probably think you do in order to activate creative stuff.

06:06

So, yes, you look around my beautiful space, and there's a lot here because I'm making things for other people, or I'm making jewellery for the brand, or I need a record so that my guitars have to be here, or there's my paintings, and but I don't need any of that. It's more like, look, I'm here for a while, so I may as well just keep it all in one place, and then it does inspire you because you know, the more you have, the more you're anchored into it. Yeah, so I think creative space it doesn't have to be one singular space, I think it's a feeling, and I think even down to if I do it a lot with playlists on Spotify. I have one or two that allow me to meditate, so if I'm tired or if there's too much going on and I need to switch off, I have a specific playlist that I love to listen to. So, even down to just sonically, having something that allows you to put your headphones on you could have no shawl, no crystals, no, nothing of yours.

07:08

But when you have, and being a musician, you would get it, you can relate to it, having that space to just go “All I need is a rhythm” and I'm used to this playlist, I'm used to this rhythm. I know it puts me into a calming space. I know I can breathe through it. If I've got pain and I know you experience pain and things like that as well it's something to distract you from it and allow you to go. Everything's okay right now, and then you get back into the wave of life.

07:41 - Alexis (Host)

Oh, so true. It's so interesting that you say that about music because, funnily enough, when I paint which I don't do very often, but I always seem to listen to Linkin Park when I paint. And for whatever reason it puts me in a particular mood to paint. I love that. I've done it since I was a teenager. I don't know, I don't. I don't question it, it just is a thing I don't.

08:08 - Morgan (Guest)

So if you are like at the shops or something, and Linkin Park comes on. Does the music activate you to want to go and paint?

08:13 - Alexis (Host)

It makes me want to paint.

08:15 - Morgan (Guest)

So it works both ways.

08:19 - Alexis (Host)

Yep! Speaking of what I mean, you have, like we were just saying, you just have your finger in all of the pies, which is bloody amazing. So I guess this next question is probably going to be a hard one. But what is something that you're proud of creating, and how did it come about?

08:35 - Morgan (Guest)

I think, as a general rule of thumb for me, I don't tend to feel a specific feeling of I'm proud of that that I've created, which is probably due to creating so much that it, to me, just within myself, that end thing is not as much what I'm doing it for. So the end thing like if I'm creating a Mandala artwork or something the end thing is more oh well, like that's just the end of it, that's not what I was doing it for in the first place. So it is a little hard. But I think when there's risk involved with something and I'm putting all of my eggs in one basket, which is usually what you're not meant to do, and when it's a real risk, I literally have to take the risk tattooed on me, probably to remind me to keep doing it. It always works. So I could say, when it comes to actual projects, probably the last Kickstarter project that I put out, the campaign which was crowdfunding, I did the last one to pre-fund and manufacture a deck of Oracle cards which had my artworks all turned into it, and doing that project, the time frames and actually having to get so incredibly structured to bring 56 artworks from paper to digitized to then choosing the manufacturers to uploading, to writing the meanings, but having the risk of people pre-buying it. It's like you have to deliver.

10:24 - Alexis (Host) That's a gamble, isn't it?

10:26 - Morgan (Guest)

It is, and I learned okay, there's certain things about this. I should. That was a mistake. I should not have done that, but you do too bad, you've got to keep going. So I think that was something, most recently, I'm very proud of, but also so that was a year ago. And then just more recently, on a personal, overall life level, choosing to go overseas on a one-way ticket and just rolling with it absolutely changed my life and I'm really proud that, even though that pragmatic side of me was saying this is not a good idea, because what are you going to do when you've spent all your money and you come back and you can't work because technically I'm not allowed to work due to injuries and things like that and thinking, well, you're just going to spend all your money and then what are you going to do? And trying to quieten that voice and actually ignore it and go, but everything in my body and everything I'm feeling is telling me you just have to do it. And then riding that wave and seeing the magic that's come from it, probably more proud of that than anything else.

11:31

And that's recent, so it's nice to understand that side of things.

11:35 - Alexis (Host)

And we spoke off mic about just the pull and throw that's within us as creatives,

11:38 - Morgan (Guest)

The back and forth the organized, the organized in the gypsy and the wanderlust, exactly the pirate and the mermaid. It's like.

11:54 - Morgan (Guest)

There's always like a nice flow and like the rhythm of, I think, the waters like or the structure, and it's great to have that and you can follow it. But then there's also the fire and the spark and the unpredictability, or however you say it, of stuff that just happens and capturing that pulse. And how do you, if you're really structured, how do you capture the gypsy moments, the spontaneity?

12:24 - Alexis (Host)

Because you want to be in the moment and present for those. But that doesn't involve being so structured and rigid.

12:30 - Morgan (Guest)

Yeah Exactly, and then if you're always in the fire and stuff, you don't get to enjoy the things to be proud of. That take time and they need the rhythm. So it's a very interesting line to walk and I think a lot of creatives have that you were saying it's like that friction between which, which you know and I switching the hat.

12:51 - Alexis (Host)

I think that is just the ongoing lesson or ongoing dance that we do, yeah, and it is a dance.

12:59 - Morgan (Guest)

It is a dance because sometimes it's about letting the spontaneity be the leader, and sometimes it's absolutely not.

13:06 - Alexis (Host)

And both of those are scary

13:09 - Morgan (Guest)

How do you know which is which? Andno one else can tell you either.

13:11 - Alexis (Host)

No, that's right.

13:12 - Morgan (Guest)

Because everyone has their own process. So, as a creative we were saying that just before that it's like one structure or system or rhythm can work for one person, but as an artist, you have your own, your own thing to express, and so it has to work for you.

13:30 - Alexis (Host)

And I think that's a beautiful thing about speaking to others as well in your community, to be reminded that it's like we're all trying to find the rhythm for ourselves. But it's nice to hear, perhaps the journey of others, to get a bit of like oh okay, maybe, maybe that, maybe that works for me, maybe that bit works for me, maybe that doesn't work for me, because everyone has different aspects.

13:55 - Morgan (Guest)

And, yeah, you're right, like one different person will take, cherry pick a couple of things that are going on for you. When you share your story of what you're doing and how you're achieving things and what's going on for you and what you're working through and how you go about it, some people will cherry pick certain things from your story and say, well, I relate to those things. I might take a couple of them and the person next to them would relate to the complete opposite parts of what you've said. But that's the point is sharing stories or expressing yourself, and we're so lucky that we get to do it in such a beautiful way and really get in touch with emotions and have the, you've got to be brave to be able to share it Honestly. Yeah, especially with algorithms and all that stuff and it becoming this whole thing where it's not even about art, it's just about let's just get popular.

14:44 - Alexis (Host)

Well, I guess that's an interesting way to step into my next question, which is has there been something that's challenged you creatively, and what do you think the major listen was around that?

15:01 - Morgan (Guest)

You know what? Being challenged creatively is probably a similar theme that's come up over, you know, 20 years, 15 years, 10 years, and the more professional that I've gone with bringing music out or doing art, whatever creative expression is, the more I recognize that themes keep repeating and, over time, in different creative outlets, still the same thing that shows up and I genuinely think it's as simple as if I feel suppressed by somebody else in whatever way that is, whether it's partnership, whether it's maybe at school, it might be teachers or, you know, over time, record label, like certain things. If there is a, we were talking about boundaries earlier- if there is a boundary, I will run as hard as I can at that boundary.

16:00

And I come at things like that with if there's a boundary, I can climb over it, I can go through it, I could go under, I could go around it, but I will find the way through. And so in that sense, it's a really strange dance between when you're suppressed and you can't do it, but also being inspired to make it work. And I think that two and a half years ago, when I was in a car accident that came out of nowhere and everything across the board in my life got taken away, family, home, ability to stand, ability to go and play when everything was away, it cleared out maybe cobwebs, it cleared out probably patterns I'd become to think, I'd started thinking and I realized that I was probably suppressing myself in so many ways in the few years leading up to that, and I wasn't even trying to express myself how I'd previously done it and it's. I'm just working this out now, as I'm telling you. So thanks.

17:10 - Alexis (Host)

I can empathize with that in so many ways a totally different journey. But for me, with my complex regional pain syndrome diagnosis at the start of the year, that's just upside down and it's affected your hands.

17:27 - Morgan (Guest)

Yes, so you see, if it had affected your feet or something like that, you'd still be able to play piano and everything, and I couldn't stand because it affected my leg. And so to play guitar and I just can't sit and do it, and you know, and so it. When something physically takes away your creative expression, you're left with having to look at things differently and probably understand why it's so important to you, and then you it's, it's crazy. Then you have this journey of essentially doing whatever it takes to be able to get back to who you already were before.

18:06 - Alexis (Host)

Isn’t that crazy, it’s so true!

18:08 - Morgan (Guest)

Other people, I think, who aren't, say, already expressing themselves and making a living out of it, and stuff would be in their jobs, or wanting to be able to express themselves. And probably looking at anybody who's doing even small gigs, let alone like professionally or whatever, just be thinking, I wish I could express myself in that way. And then you're doing it as your job and as a living and as you know how to do it, and then it gets taken away and you will fight harder to get back to what you're doing when other people have the ability to do it but they don't even know that they can fight towards it. And I find that so interesting.

18:49

And I think that when I said before about having a boundary, I feel that when I had the car accident, it was an explosion that did take everything away, but it took away all the things in all the areas of my life, not just creatively, and the one thing I still had was my mindset, and then that got me through getting through physical stuff, and then, once I started yeah, once I started getting back into feeling that everything was going well, it's like it switched and then I had physical things back, but my mindset was getting worse and worse and worse.

19:22

So I went on a real journey where it was really strange and I got to heal all of this stuff through the whole thing. And I think, as we were saying I said earlier that they do those studies on kids in like an, like an oval, like a playground, and if you put humans in one spot and there's no boundary, no circle on the outside, they all stick together because they don't want to push the boundaries. But as soon as you put a fence up, all the kids will run to the edges and go towards it

19:56 - Alexis (Host)

There's the boundary. I want to touch it.

19:58 - Morgan (Guest)

I can do it, I can take the risk, I can do that and I think that's probably when I had this car accident and everything just went bang, itt was almost like that was me, that was the boundary of somehow I don't know how to explain that but something that took all the creativity away. So I was like, right, that's it, I have to get back there. I don't know something strange like that.

20:20 - Alexis (Host)

It's interesting that, I dont’ know who I. Something that one of my chiropractors said to me at once was that “the journey to get there is easier because we've been there before.”

20:33 - Morgan (Guest)

Oh, that's good. Great advice.

20:33 - Alexis (Host)

I got given that, when I was just feeling really disenfranchised, really deflated about ever getting full mobility in my hand back and it was like but you have done that before.

20:53 - Morgan (Guest)

I got goosebumps look. Yeah, because that's exactly what I was just saying before, that if people haven't experienced pure expression and knowing the feeling of that joy and just that, what do you even call it? Where you're not even in control of it, it's just coming through you and it's total freedom, right, like when you're able to just whatever you feel inside. You can then put it in the physical world, and when people appreciate it or they listen or they support it, it's bizarre because you think and I'm just doing what's inside of me- how is it that

20:53 - Alexis (Host)

I'm just a vessel for the thing

21:25 Morgan (Guest)

Yeah, how is it that this, like you, understand it? You know, and other people who can't do that or aren't at the place yet wanna get there so badly. And you're right. That's an incredible way that you're a chiropractor put it to say you've already been there, so you know the way back, and it's just you know the end goal.

21:44 - Alexis (Host)

Yeah, it might be frustrating, but you still have been there. You've done all the hard steps. You've really paved the way.

21:50 - Morgan (Guest)

There you go, and then, when something comes, up like a chronic pain thing or a misdiagnosis or whatever it is, you realize. Well, I can go under it, over it, through it, around it, cause I know I will know when it feels like I'm back there. Yes, yeah, that's great, a great way to put it.

22:07 - Alexis (Host)

I love how we're talking this through.

22:13 - Morgan (Guest)

Yeah, it's amazing. Look at us. We're healing everything here, yes.

22:16 - Alexis (Host)

I need to rename the podcast Healing Podcast. We talk about what we need to just work through.

22:23 - Morgan (Guest)

Yes.

22:27 - Alexis (Host)

Actually, maybe that's a good way going into my next question, which was if you could give one piece of advice or a nugget of advice to another creative, what would it be?

22:41 - Morgan (Guest)

A piece of advice I actually think is somewhat similar to what I was saying before, that we all, as humans, have our own internal rhythms and a beat of you know the beat, the back beat right, just the backbone of your life and the way that you interact with people, and it all gets built through families and as you're growing up and, of course, all of that and then your expression, and I think that there's a lot of, we're in a society that is structured to certain calendars and so there's certain societal rules, you know that that make you think you can do one thing but you can't do another, and there's boundaries and all of that stuff.

23:30

And so I really think the best advice anybody could take is you have to find your own rhythm and then you have to be able to accept it and you have to be able to start working with it, especially when it goes against what other people your family, your partners, your friends, your job like, whatever it is will probably be at friction. And the further away you are from being able to express yourself, probably the bigger journey you've got to find it again, because we're all born into this society, which has its own rhythm and it's not created for creative people. So that's always why it's the struggling artist or the crazy artist. So because we're more like anomalies, we're on the outskirts looking at things, because we've found at least parts of our own rhythm. And I think any way, whether you're a musician, poet, designer, artist, painter, filmmaker, photographer, model, actor, playwright, whatever you do, you've got to find your own rhythm to keep it going, because otherwise you get affected by everything else, infected by everything else and it takes over.

24:50 - Alexis (Host)

It's like what you said before about it takes courage to do that and our communities around us. For some of us, we're very lucky and we find the community as we're figuring out what our journey is and what our rhythm is.

25:09 - Morgan (Guest)

But, yeah. You know, I never felt like I had community with creative stuff, probably because I'm a bit of a, I'm like this in. Have you heard that saying the way you do one thing is the way you do all things?

25:21

I love that and a lot of the time it's really scary, because if you figure something out and you think, oh, I don't like that about myself or how that's interacted, whatever it is, and then you go Wait, if I'm noticing that I do that here, oh no, am I doing this in other areas? And then sometimes you can sweep across and go ooh, okay.

25:42 - Alexis (Host)

It's a common denominator.

25:43 - Morgan (Guest)

Sometimes it's ugly and not cool and sometimes it's great and you go. I'm so glad I have that courage or I have that ability and, yeah, I can apply that and I just I never really had community and I, and that's just, I was an only child. Well I am. You know, I still am. But so being on my own and being creative, that made sense and a little bit of a social butterfly and a little bit of going from art to painting to singing, to designing things, whatever that relationship to creativity was enough to feel like there was stuff going on. And so it's only been since I went overseas and really found that creative group of people, casual community, and then coming back to Perth realizing it's all here as well and like that's wild, because it was always here but I wasn't there for it or I don't know. It's hard to explain, but it all feels great now and I think, man, that accident, that car accident, was great, just blocked everything out so I could get more straight through the centre.

26:50 - Alexis (Host)

Yeah, you don't wish it upon anyone to have trials and tribulations, but if people can get through them as healthily as possible and learn things from them, it helps in some way, I don't know, bridge the divide.

27:08 - Morgan (Guest)

Yeah, like I've been told I can't work. I've been told I've got prescription drugs, everything, and there's times where I'm like I can feel that I've pushed my body physically too hard so I will have to take some of the prescription medication. And then other times I'm like I don't want to take the prescription medication but then I've got vices and I'll lean into that and drink my tequila and whatever, and then that'll make it okay, and then you're unbalanced and then you've got to come back through that rhythm and there's a lot that goes on with all of that stuff. And it's just it's interesting to navigate it all and figure out your own rhythms.

27:49 - Alexis (Host)

Yes, so true, so true. I have one last question for you. If you could have anyone come on to the podcast next and answer these questions, who would it be and why?

28:05 - Morgan (Guest)

I'd love to hear Vera Black answer all of this stuff. Yeah, I think that would be great and she does, has a fashion label, designs hats, and she's Australian and she's from Perth and was in Sydney and is now over there and I think it would be interesting to hear her answer.

28:24 - Alexis (Host)

Oh, Morgan, thank you so much for joining me Through The Creative Door.

28:29 - Morgan (Guest)

Thank you for having me. It was great to chat with you. I feel really happy that you asked me to be involved.

28:36 - Alexis (Host)

Oh, I'm so chuffed again. I was fangirling for a while. I love that.

28:41 - Morgan (Guest)

Oh, well, then we're going to have to play more. Do shows together, all of the things.

28:47 - Alexis (Host)

Love it, thank you.

28:48 - Morgan (Guest)

Thank you.