11 minute read
EARTH MOTHER
Earth Mother: The Marvelous Megan Torello
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WORDS BY LAUREN MCDONALD | PHOTOS BY DERRICK DAVIS + LESLIE HAND
Megan Torello has a habit of driving past large blank walls around Glynn County and losing herself in ideas of what kind of artwork could fill that space.
Since moving to the area several years ago, she’s already added her own colorful creations to numerous large empty walls and other surfaces, through public and private commissions and a community-wide mural initiative.
Torello has been an artist for as long as she can remember, although it’s not her day job. Instead, she finds time in a busy schedule of work responsibilities and family engagements to let her creative mind blossom and make the kind of art that she hopes brings happiness to others.
Torello lives on St. Simons with her husband, 15-year-old son, and 11-year old daughter. They moved to the island from Maryland.
Her artwork can be seen all over Glynn County, in public murals and inside homes, at art shows, on the tables at Chile Peppers Island
Cantina, along the banister at Three Little
Birds Catering and more.
All of her commissions have been made possible by word of mouth referrals, and Torello is able to paint and create in her brief pockets of free time.
During a meeting over coffee at Wake Up
Coffee in July, Torello had eight art projects on deck, including a residential mural on Sea
Island and a planned interior mural for the gymnasium at Morningstar Children & Family
Services. She described the constant flow of opportunities to create art for others as serendipitous.
“I’ve never really put in bids for anything or asked for things,” Torello says. “The universe is just like,
‘here, let me bring this to you and see what you want to do with it.’ And I love that.
“It really gives me this freedom because I do work full time and I do have two children who are very busy. It gives me the opportunity to say yes to the things that spark some joy for me.”
She began honing her artistic skills early, as a little one who loved to create.
“I’ve been painting, drawing, gluing things together since I was a child,” Torello says. “I can remember creating art my whole life. I feel like a lot of it started with my grandfather. In childhood, he used to bring home giant pieces of cardboard and we would just draw and paint all over them.”
She carried that love for creative endeavors forward into high school and through college, where she majored in art therapy.
“I feel like college was really the turning point for me where things started to click and not only did I love it but I felt like I could really do it,” she says. “It’s always been something that’s fulfilling. It feeds my soul, and it sort of just keeps me sane.”
She turns to art when she needs questions answered or has thoughts to ponder.
“It’s sort like meditative practice,” Torello says.
Torello works full time though for the state’s Department of Early Care and Learning (DECAL) as a special projects manager for the Quality Rated division, which is responsible for childcare quality improvement efforts across Georgia. She’s passionate about the work and maintains a strong interest in the ways that fostering creativity can improve a child’s education.
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28 Market Street, Suite 128 SSI, GA 31522 The wedding bowl THE WEDDING BOWL The H. Shadron Wedding Bowl customized for the Perfect www.halcyo Wedding Gift, at The Tabby House. nhealthssi.com
FROM OUR HOUSE TO YOUR HOUSE The Tabby House Jewelry | Bath & Body | Ornaments | Tablecloths Accents • Gifts • Linens • Wedding RegistryPlacemats & Napkins | Home Decor | and much more 1550 Frederica Road, St Simons Island, GA 31522 • At the Roundabout 1550 Frederica Rd. | SSI | Mon.-Sat. 9:00 am - 5:30 pm | 912.638.2257 912-638-2257 • Open Mon - Sat - 9:00am - 5:30 pm “Creating art, especially for young children, can be so powerful without them even realizing, which I think is what makes it so magical,” Torello says. “The opportunity to take materials and create something out of nothing, and then look at it and realize I created that out of nothing, that is such a powerful experience for children.”
Art promotes problem solving skills and teaches patience and kindness, she says.
“Art helps math, helps reading, helps social skills,” Torello says. “It’s just such a powerful backbone to everything.”
During the early part of the COVID-19 pandemic, when she couldn’t go into others’ homes or businesses to create commissioned art, Torello spent a lot of time creating in her home studio, which is tucked into a corner of her family’s living room.
“I really got into watercolor during that time,” she says. “I painted a mural up my stairwell. I didn’t mean to. It was just a solution to me not being able to reach the top of the wall.”
She ended up painting halfway up the wall and then created outlines of flowers to blend the border between the new and old paint that she couldn’t reach.
“It’s honestly one of my favorite things I’ve ever painted, and it just was one afternoon of spontaneity, of like ‘I’m going to paint some flowers on the stairwell,’” Torello says.
The daily time spent in her studio during that period of the pandemic became a salve that helped her process the stress at that time.
“Spending daily time in my studio really helped me deal with what was going on and helped me be a more present parent for my children, to help them deal with what was going on,” she says. “I feel like art at times is what saves me from anxiety, and it helps me process things.”
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Torello keeps two lists that are constantly evolving, one with art ideas for others and one with creations she’ll work on in her home studio.
The latter, though, is less an organized list than a jar fulled of scraps of paper where’s she’s quickly sketched sparks of ideas or written down random words.
Torello fills a ceramic pot at home with these “lost ideas” and gets to them when she has time.
“Sometimes if I go into my studio, if I don’t have something on deck that I know I’m going to work on, I’ll just sort of dig in there and see what resparks,” she says.
When asked to describe her artistic style, Torello doesn’t try to sum it up in a sentence or two. She never lets herself pick a lane because she loves trying new techniques too much to stick with one approach.
“I’ll find a new material or a new brand of supply that I want to try, and I’ll just go down that road for a little while and see what happens,” she says.
She draws plenty of inspiration from the coastal beauty of her home, though.
“I love to paint the ocean and landscapes here,” she says. “It’s just really the nature here is totally inspiring. But I use water colors, I use acrylics, I use pastels, I sort of use lots of things and paint lots of subjects, so it’s difficult for me to give an elevator speech about my art.”
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She hopes, however, that everyone who views her artwork takes at least one thing from the experience: joy.
“Talking about art is one of my favorite things to do, and one of the topics I love is ‘Does art need to be beautiful?’” Torello says. “And I don’t feel that it does. But for sure my goal with art always is around joy. Bold colors, bright spaces. If you drive by it or walk by it or happen to see it, I just hope that it sparks a little bit of joy.”
She encourages even the busiest of people to find time to engage in creative pursuits.
“Even if it is minimal, just to give your brain and your soul a little space to move around, and see what happens,” she says. “It really is so valuable to your inner peace.”
For more information on Megan Torello and her art, visit megan-torello.pixels.com or follow her on Facebook or Instagram @megantorelloart.
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