Today we’d like to introduce you to Megan Knobloch Geilman.
Hi Megan, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
I grew up in University City, attended art school in the Bay Area, and then studied Art Education at Brigham Young University. Deep down I knew I wanted to work in contemporary religious art and I attribute a lot of that to the religious diversity I grew up with at UC. Currently, I live out of state but my work involves staging images and then working with my sister (the exceptionally skilled dance photographer Samantha Zauscher @samzauschphoto) to take the photograph and then I work on compositing the image to match my original vision. She still lives at UC so it involves a lot of cross-collaboration and flying back and forth but being able to work on my art with my talented sister is so, so rewarding.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
There was about a seven-year gap after college where I didn’t produce any “art” at all. I had gone through college without really finding my voice or my style, which was really discouraging. I still managed to do creative things and I worked as a freelance graphic designer but I wasn’t making any Art (capital A) which had always been my dream.
While we were living in Orange County and my son was just a baby, I had an idea for one of these staged scenes, and I knew I just had to do it. I shot it in my parent’s garage in University City, and then it just sat there on my computer for 2 years. My daughter was a few months old when one day got another idea. By then my sister’s career as a photographer had really been picking up and I knew that if I wanted to focus on the conceptual side of things, I needed to outsource that portion of it. It’s been really wonderful being able to create this work, and even though it felt like a long and rocky start, I’ve been able to develop a really good process over time. Things still move really slow; I can only produce about 2-4 images a year these days because each one takes 6-8 months of planning and then almost as long in the post-production, but I feel so lucky to be able to make these images.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
My work involves elaborately staged scenes or a tableax-vivant that delves largely into doctrine, history, and social issues within my faith (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints). I mainly use art, historical references, and symbolic objects to communicate a thesis, something I’m exploring or that I care deeply about. Lately, it’s been a lot of environmental and ecological topics, racial and socioeconomic issues, and intersectional feminism/ecofeminism. When you think progressively within a conservative faith, there are plenty of tensions to explore. There aren’t a lot of voices in the contemporary religious art space, but I hope to see that change. Most religious art has been either purely devotional, narrative, and faith promoting–or on the other side of the spectrum, it can be cynical and overtly critical. I hope to be able to explore my faith and present my art in a more nuanced way.
So, before we go, how can our readers or others connect or collaborate with you? How can they support you?
Buy art! Art takes money to create, and my work is no exception. But there are lots of things that you can do for free: promoting an artist’s work on social media is so helpful and doesn’t cost anything. If you have connections in the art world, and can help artists gain exposure to those who have the ability to exhibit or collect, that is also huge. If an artist’s work touches you, reach out and let them know, sometimes that can make all the difference. I am always so grateful for anyone who has supported me, either with funds, resources, or even just encouragement.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.meganknoblochgeilman.com
- Instagram: @megan.knobloch.geilman
- Facebook: /worksoftranslation
Image Credits
Samantha Zauscher
