This month, we’re featuring a new artist in our stores: Magwire Art! Molly McGuire (aka Magwire) is a New Orleans based artist who is inspired by her love of the circus. Her childhood home in Ontario bordered a stretch of land that would host a seasonal circus and she would sneak in when they were setting up to chat with the circus performers: “They told me about their adventures. And it was the first time I really felt like I fit in,” Molly says on her website, “I felt connected to these carnies and to this atmosphere. It became my comfort zone and my happy place.”
After joining a rock band and traveling for 20 years, Molly settled down in New Orleans where she drew inspiration from the “local folklore, music, and mystique of the Crescent City.”
Her large-scale poster work has been featured in American Horror Story Season IV (Freak Show). While she is inspired by the original, historical circus acts, she strives to represent the marginalized people in these acts with dignity: “This balance of humanity and creativity is what I'm after—as I direct the ‘art department’ of the carnival that is my life.”
Magwire's circus posters as seen in American Horror Story: Freakshow
Molly’s art was introduced to Foursided by our co-founder, Gino Pinto. I asked him where he first came upon Molly’s work and he said he saw her earlier this year at the Coconut Grove Arts Festival in Florida and was immediately drawn to her booth. It was transformed to look like a circus tent and she was sitting behind the ticket counter. “She was immediately welcoming and interested in working with Foursided,” said Gino, “While her booth had giant original paintings, I knew her prints would be well received by our customers as soon as I saw her Dorothy-Wizard of Oz print.”
Molly’s Wizard of Oz print (titled Surrender Dorothy) features an illustration packed with imagery from the original 1939 movie including Dorothy, the Wicked Witch of the West, and Glinda the Good Witch. Dorothy stands in the middle of the piece along the yellow brick road, a look of anxiety on her face. She is bracketed by a witch on either side, with the text “Surrender Dorothy” above her in a rainbow. This piece explores how reality can be altered by a myriad of factors, both for the better or for the worse: “It reflects how external forces, whether numbing or enlightening, often shape us without our awareness,” Molly said about this piece on Instagram, “The piece invites us to recognize the subtle influences around us - and decide if we will surrender or awaken.”
Visit any of our locations to see her prints or stop by a frame shop to get creative ideas for custom framing her pieces!
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