Meet Sumner Mormeneo | Visual Artist & Writer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Sumner Mormeneo and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Sumner, why did you pursue a creative career?
For me, it was never really a choice or something to consider. It was always the plan. When I was very young, I was always drawing, painting, acting, or putting on shows with the other kids in the neighborhood, or making movies. I always thought I wanted to be an Imagineer. Eventually, I did become a scenic artist on the path to get into a creative career with the Disney or Universal theme parks. Ultimately, as my career as an artist took off, I realized I needed to focus on that. A former collaborator once asked me, “Why do you do this?” He was referring to the experimental pantomime productions I was doing at the time. I had to stop and think. I realized, if not me, then who? That’s when I learned the importance of telling your story, and more importantly, using your own voice to do so.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
My art is weird, and I’m not shy about it. My live performances combined pantomime techniques with large DIY moving set pieces, props, and cutting-edge projection mapping technology. Most of my paintings are macabre self-portraits in distorted realities that depict my neurosis. The writing of my shows and the narratives within my paintings are almost set in their own universe, give or take some clown-white makeup. It took years of performing in queer nightclubs to figure out what my performance work would look like as a feature theater production. Naturally, it was not easy pushing my way into performance spaces that wanted drag shows or dance numbers. I was always the freak show that stood out. Even many of my paintings are difficult to place in group shows, as the spotlight depictions of unsettling themes tend to stick out. It’s always going to be difficult being the weird one, but why would you ever want to be like everyone else? I’m proud of the work I’ve created and excited to see how my work takes shape in the future. Leaving Orlando and coming here to Los Angeles feels like a new chapter in my work as an artist. I realized, in Orlando, that I didn’t want to continue my live productions because it became too large an undertaking as a solo artist. That’s when I realized that writing for the screen is what I’ve been working towards. That’s being an artist, though; Creating work and letting it evolve, and growing in and out of mediums. I’m focusing on writing horror screenplays now and getting back into painting. It is all slowly taking shape. It feels very different already. Especially being a few years sober and living in a new city, but the work feeling different is welcome and exciting.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I’m not ashamed to be a tourist. My first year or so here, I would always drive down Sunset Blvd with visitors. Taking them to Universal Studios for the Backlot tour. I still love the Santa Monica Pier. I’m in love with the number of old theaters that are in this city. I love music just as much as my passion for art so seeing concerts in the old venues is an incredible experience. And of course, burritos from taco stands. Not food trucks or restaurants, the quicker the setup looks, like a cheap plastic table, the better the burrito is going to be.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
The City of Orlando, Florida, is where I studied in college and initially pursued my career as an artist. The community there is something I didn’t fully appreciate or recognize until moving to a major city. I had a few professors at the University of Central Florida who helped me recognize that the queer themes and uniqueness of my work that sets it apart from others is something to be celebrated and explored. This includes performance and visual artist Wanda Raimundi-Ortiz, who also encouraged me to explore the work of other queer and Latinx performance artists, and Carla Poindexter, who encouraged me to take my work in a bigger and bolder direction with honesty. The Creative City Project funded my performance and installation work for years as I debuted each new work at their Immerse Festival. Each year, they put me on a bigger and bigger stage, until my final year with them, when I was featured in a headlining time slot on the main stage. My largest and final solo gallery show at the CityArts Gallery was thanks to curator Flynn Dobbs, who has done extraordinary work for artists in Central Florida. And of course, my live performances wouldn’t be anything without my collaborators along the way, namely Ricky Johnson. Out here in Los Angeles, Sküt put me in my first group show this past year at Circus of Books in West Hollywood.

Website: https://www.sumnermormeneo.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/SumnerAHH