This is Willard Morgan, one of the most iconic figures in the New York City art scene. Get to know this important Amarena collaborator through his own words.

My name is Willard Morgan. I was born into a bombastic, noisy family. My mother was an opera singer. I came out of the womb into The fantastic musical drag show that is opera, the Gilbert & Sullivan operettas – Tales of Hoffman, anything Mozart or Puccini, which featured cross dressing in many of the roles. Suzy, my mom, was constantly singing and always surrounded by her fellow performers. Growing up between these two divas was a highly theatrical experience! my mother was cast in. When I was a child, I thought that everyone should wear a kimono, like in Madame Butterfly or the Mikado, or a general’s uniform like in The Pirates of Penzance.

I wrote, produced, and performed in several eccentric highly costumed productions and exhibited these fashions in fringe fashion shows from Toronto, Paris, Brooklyn to Brighton and Maastricht collaborating with the geniuses Uta Bekaia and Darlene Ken. Most recently, we worked together on my present production The Tannery, a gothic horror film which takes place in 1920 in the stinking tannery of a serial murdering glove fetishist obsessed with yes…opera. We took great pains to recreate the fashions of the Roaring Twenties and the splendor of the Jazz Age.

I’ve always been concerned about our planet and seek to maximize the sustainability of my work by using vintage clothing whenever possible and re-fashioning old clothes and giving fast fashion an extended life in a line I call Vestiphobia NYC. I’m most proud of the work I’ve provided the space and support for over the years at Ideal Glass Gallery.

Come visit our sites and join us on social media:

@WillardMorgan, @VestiphobiaNYC and IdealGlassStudios.com

More about my activities in a subsequent story here.