Cathartic Creations: Maggie Higgins | Jerry-Faye Flatt
Maggie Higgins | http://maggiehiggins.com/painting
Maggie Higgins’ work certainly stands out: The multi-media Saint John artist primarily fixates on human and animal subjects; she draws unique portraits, plays with size and scale, and uses unusual colours that are distinctive to her work. Much of Maggie’s art evokes a feeling of vulnerability or unease within the viewer, from her portraits of people with long swan-like necks, to her collages of tiny people perched atop a giant pigeon head.
Maggie Higgins | http://maggiehiggins.com/collage
Maggie sometimes uses animals to talk about her personal experiences in an allegorical way. She did just that in one of her recent projects titled, Once Carried / Now Kept. It was created for and published in the book Harbour: A Compendium by Amy Ash, a concept book that looks at the term “harbour” as both the geographical location, and the definition of the word itself. Maggie’s contribution to the book includes a photo series displayed alongside a personal story, one of her miscarriage.
“A lot of my work has to do with a kind of narrative. . .[Animals are] a way to talk about my personal experience but with the symbol of animals, and using their characteristics, or using them as a symbol, to kind of communicate my own story,” said Maggie.
Maggie Higgins holds her published work in Harbour: A Compendium.
Maggie doesn’t describe herself as a photographer, but her work in the publication shows otherwise.
The photos are of fluid-preserved specimens: a fawn, baby birds, and baby beavers. The photos immediately evoke a feeling of loss, but also of awe. Maggie captured all the right details: the tiny fingers and whiskers, the baby hair and feathers. The images are heartbreaking but in a way also peaceful, forever preserved in a sleeping form as if still living in their mother.
Maggie Higgins | http://maggiehiggins.com/
Maggie stumbled upon the specimens one day while she was doing some work at the New Brunswick Museum Archives. She was fascinated by the preserved animals but wasn’t feeling her best that day. She was pregnant, so she decided to come back to them at a later date. The next day she found out she had miscarried.
“I was in a very weird kind of grieving stage at that point, but I kept thinking about those specimens and thinking, ‘Okay, I need to process that somehow, I don't quite know how.’”
A couple months later she returned to take photos of the specimens and wrote about her experience.
“It was just a really cathartic experience for me.”
It was the most moving and enjoyable process she’s had so far as an artist.
“Having those published recently was also really quite a nice full circle moment for me.”
Maggie Higgins | http://maggiehiggins.com/
A Meaning Within the Portraits
Maggie continues to process her personal experiences through other mediums. She showed some pieces in an exhibit called Surviving the Pandemic at the new Spicer Merrifield gallery in Saint John, they are self-portrait-based works of her wrapped in a blanket with integrated mourning doves. While they are self-portrait based, Maggie said the narrative behind the physical image itself is deeper and overarching.
“It was both acute and abstract what was happening in the world. With COVID, with the mass shooting in Nova Scotia, the Black Lives Matter movement which of course is overall very positive but there's also a lot of tragedy and violence to be witnessed within that, and all of which we were trying to participate in while stuck at home and very much isolated. So, my work was kind of dealing with that.”
Maggie Higgins | http://maggiehiggins.com/
Maggie also has been creating more of her long neck portraits, one of her favourite styles to do. Her recent ones are behind a yellow or enamel pink backdrop, the colour is shocking and immediately eye-catching, which was Maggie’s goal.
“There’s like a strength and a vulnerability to the portraits. . .these long necks that the portraits have are kind of the same thing, so it's this idea of like great beauty and elegance, but it looks quite almost weak and vulnerable at the same time.”
Maggie recently created one of these portraits of Jane Blanchard for her recent album, Still, Again. Maggie felt like her work and Jane’s music paired together well.
Maggie Higgins’ portrait of Jane Blanchard for her album Still, Again.
“I felt her music was doing something interesting and similar. It was vulnerable, but it was strong. It was autobiographical as a self-portrait, but it was done in such a different medium, in music. I think our art styles paired really nicely together.”
Maggie’s work can be found at http://maggiehiggins.com/. The book Harbour: A Compendium can be purchased at Saint John shop Visitors at 145 Union St or online here.
Jerry-Faye Flatt was a summer reporter for CreatedHere Magazine and is now the Student Life Coordinator at the New Brunswick College of Craft and Design. She’s a recent St. Thomas University grad who double majored in journalism and communications. Flatt spent her final year at university as the Managing Editor of The Aquinian, STU’s official student newspaper, after working as the Arts Editor in her previous year. When she’s not busy out getting the latest scoop, you can find her playing in bands or driving around in her red 1981 Ford Econoline van. If you have a story tip, you can contact her at flatt.jerryfaye@gmail.com.