Morgan's profile
The Great American Storyteller
Born to a wealthy, established Creole family in Louisiana in 1945, I grew up attending segregated schools and attended Bishop College in Dallas, Texas, for three years before doing two tours of duty with the Navy in Vietnam between 1964 and 1973. When I returned home from Navy duty, curiosity as to my standing as a black man and an American citizen drove me to see how the rest of America lived. So, for 17 years thereafter, I traveled back and forth across the country, accumulating addresses and occupations, including janitor, short order cook, substitute teacher, and commodities trader.
In 1990, I moved to the South Bronx. Within a year I found myself unemployed, lost my apartment, and found myself homeless. Then, and only then, did I start painting, using materials I found on the street.
Still homeless, I moved to Southampton, Long Island, where I found a job as a janitor in a nightclub on the East End. To fill the empty, lonely hours when I was not working, I painted. At the town dump, I discovered a cache of good art supplies and set to work. Six months later, I saw work similar to my own at a local gallery and convinced the owner, Morgan Rank, to look at my paintings. One month later, I had my first one-man show. It was 1992.
I was inspired to create my first series while living in New York. Fascinated with the phenomena of social dynamics and power, I created Hail To The Chiefs (1992), depicting all the U.S. presidents, from George Washington to George H. W. Bush; 41 portraits that collectively chronicle the succession of power of American leaders. Incorporating historical research into my drawings, paintings, and collaged portraits, these works on paper were comprised of oil and acrylic paint, paste, magic marker, and recycled objects. Campaign buttons, ribbons, sequins, fabric and costume jewelry, fragments of plastic, wood, and leather were reclaimed from obsolescence and fashioned for artistic purposes. As visual documentation of symbolic importance, personal engagement, power, beauty, and associated levels of sophistication, portraiture gave a fresh meaning to my developing art practice.
Morgan Rank first displayed the paintings in his own gallery and then sent them on a tour of presidential libraries and museums. He was also highly instrumental in securing television exposure for me and my work in October 1995 when I appeared on Good Morning America and Good Morning LA, as well as other programs which featured one-on-one interviews with personalities such as Nina Salter. With Rank's sponsorship, I had time and materials available to complete a second series of paintings. Entitled Black and Red: African American Cowboys and Native Americans (1999), the work approached the subject of 'cowboys and Indians' from an alternative perspective by chronicling the contributions of – and prejudices encountered by – African Americans and Native Americans in the West.
My third body of work was a pictorial history of jazz in the United States. The work drew upon my childhood experiences and my music education to bring a distinctly personal and human perspective to America's jazz legends. This collection was published in 1994 by Alfred A. Knopf in a book entitled Jazz: My Music, My People, with vibrantly colored portraits and abstracts accompanied by commentary. It proved to be a delightful read for jazz aficionados and lay persons alike.
My fourth body of work entitled Divas: And So I Sing (1999) was shown at the River Oaks Square Arts Centre in Alexandria, Louisiana, and New Orleans. This series featured African Americans who became successful on the operatic stage. Divas was again shown most recently in New Orleans, Louisiana, at Barristers Gallery in the beginning of this year.
In another series which I co-ordinated in Rhode Island, I’ll Make Me a World (1999), one would have found more personal heroics portrayed by ‘everyday people’ whose spiritual and psychological presence leans forward to draw the viewer into their world. Crafted in my characteristic style, the intentional use of calligraphy sought to give color to the subject’s personal aura, engage the viewer with rhythm and texture that assists the definition of personal space, consume negative space, and interactively inform the viewer with facts and possible clues to their secrets.
I have recently completed a collection of linocuts and paintings of Exegesis (Black Bible), a series which portrays Biblical scenes from an African American perspective, and which followed another project called Shadowball (2014); a series of paintings and linocuts featuring African American men and women in baseball history. Shadowball opened at the New Door Creative Gallery in Baltimore on April 2014. Exegesis had its first private viewing at the Unexpected Art Gallery, Baltimore, in 2015.
I chose to paint because there was nothing else to do after Vietnam, apart from the odd jobs I did manage to have. Perhaps - it would be better to say - I had nothing else to do that would fulfill my need to illuminate. I had originally wanted to be an opera singer, my late mother being a jazz singer and who had a tremendous influence on my own life. Besides, being dyslexic allowed me to approach art as a form of therapy after the Vietnam War. Being surrounded by my family also helped immensely with the healing process.
Throughout a career that spans 34 years to date, I have created 13 series, achieved 34 solo shows, 25 group shows, shown nine multimedia/installation/performance pieces, attained over 20 years’ curatorial experience, five years’ art teaching experience, published two books, and my work is included in six public collections, including the Smithsonian Institution which has traveled with my work.
I received the Parents Choice Gold Award for the children's book My Heroes, My People: African Americans and Native Americans in the West which I co-authored with Ruth Katcher in 1999 and which preceded the "Black and Red" exhibition the following year.
In addition to these achievements and the aforementioned examples of television exposure, I have taken part in panel discussions; the most recent being hosted in March 2016 by the Dwelaa Artist Collective in Baltimore. I have also enjoyed being featured in print since 1992. Examples include The New York Times, New Yorker, New Orleans Times and The Baltimore Sun. Quite recently, I've had the privilege of being featured in the Bmore Art journal (an initiative of Baltimore artist Cara Ober), in both the online (2015) and print (2016) versions. My portrait of Pocahontas from "Black and Red" was also featured in Heike Paul's The Myths That Made America (2014, published by [transcript] in Germany).
With regard to my goals, I am committed to lifelong learning and innovation and continue to work towards acquiring new knowledge and skills including a move into photography within three years. In 2014, for example, I learned to operate a French Tool Press. Within five years, I would count it an honor to have my work portrayed in a retrospective exhibition in a prestigious museum, as well as extending the reach of my work to countries outside the United States. I also intend to add to The Presidents series with a portrait of each newly elected president and first lady in the longer term. As an aside, in the event that Hillary Clinton becomes president, how would one refer to the husband? I am eagerly awaiting the results.
Born to a wealthy, established Creole family in Louisiana in 1945, I grew up attending segregated schools and attended Bishop College in Dallas, Texas, for three years before doing two tours of duty with the Navy in Vietnam between 1964 and 1973. When I returned home from Navy duty, curiosity as to my standing as a black man and an American citizen drove me to see how the rest of America lived. So, for 17 years thereafter, I traveled back and forth across the country, accumulating addresses and occupations, including janitor, short order cook, substitute teacher, and commodities trader.
In 1990, I moved to the South Bronx. Within a year I found myself unemployed, lost my apartment, and found myself homeless. Then, and only then, did I start painting, using materials I found on the street.
Still homeless, I moved to Southampton, Long Island, where I found a job as a janitor in a nightclub on the East End. To fill the empty, lonely hours when I was not working, I painted. At the town dump, I discovered a cache of good art supplies and set to work. Six months later, I saw work similar to my own at a local gallery and convinced the owner, Morgan Rank, to look at my paintings. One month later, I had my first one-man show. It was 1992.
I was inspired to create my first series while living in New York. Fascinated with the phenomena of social dynamics and power, I created Hail To The Chiefs (1992), depicting all the U.S. presidents, from George Washington to George H. W. Bush; 41 portraits that collectively chronicle the succession of power of American leaders. Incorporating historical research into my drawings, paintings, and collaged portraits, these works on paper were comprised of oil and acrylic paint, paste, magic marker, and recycled objects. Campaign buttons, ribbons, sequins, fabric and costume jewelry, fragments of plastic, wood, and leather were reclaimed from obsolescence and fashioned for artistic purposes. As visual documentation of symbolic importance, personal engagement, power, beauty, and associated levels of sophistication, portraiture gave a fresh meaning to my developing art practice.
Morgan Rank first displayed the paintings in his own gallery and then sent them on a tour of presidential libraries and museums. He was also highly instrumental in securing television exposure for me and my work in October 1995 when I appeared on Good Morning America and Good Morning LA, as well as other programs which featured one-on-one interviews with personalities such as Nina Salter. With Rank's sponsorship, I had time and materials available to complete a second series of paintings. Entitled Black and Red: African American Cowboys and Native Americans (1999), the work approached the subject of 'cowboys and Indians' from an alternative perspective by chronicling the contributions of – and prejudices encountered by – African Americans and Native Americans in the West.
My third body of work was a pictorial history of jazz in the United States. The work drew upon my childhood experiences and my music education to bring a distinctly personal and human perspective to America's jazz legends. This collection was published in 1994 by Alfred A. Knopf in a book entitled Jazz: My Music, My People, with vibrantly colored portraits and abstracts accompanied by commentary. It proved to be a delightful read for jazz aficionados and lay persons alike.
My fourth body of work entitled Divas: And So I Sing (1999) was shown at the River Oaks Square Arts Centre in Alexandria, Louisiana, and New Orleans. This series featured African Americans who became successful on the operatic stage. Divas was again shown most recently in New Orleans, Louisiana, at Barristers Gallery in the beginning of this year.
In another series which I co-ordinated in Rhode Island, I’ll Make Me a World (1999), one would have found more personal heroics portrayed by ‘everyday people’ whose spiritual and psychological presence leans forward to draw the viewer into their world. Crafted in my characteristic style, the intentional use of calligraphy sought to give color to the subject’s personal aura, engage the viewer with rhythm and texture that assists the definition of personal space, consume negative space, and interactively inform the viewer with facts and possible clues to their secrets.
I have recently completed a collection of linocuts and paintings of Exegesis (Black Bible), a series which portrays Biblical scenes from an African American perspective, and which followed another project called Shadowball (2014); a series of paintings and linocuts featuring African American men and women in baseball history. Shadowball opened at the New Door Creative Gallery in Baltimore on April 2014. Exegesis had its first private viewing at the Unexpected Art Gallery, Baltimore, in 2015.
I chose to paint because there was nothing else to do after Vietnam, apart from the odd jobs I did manage to have. Perhaps - it would be better to say - I had nothing else to do that would fulfill my need to illuminate. I had originally wanted to be an opera singer, my late mother being a jazz singer and who had a tremendous influence on my own life. Besides, being dyslexic allowed me to approach art as a form of therapy after the Vietnam War. Being surrounded by my family also helped immensely with the healing process.
Throughout a career that spans 34 years to date, I have created 13 series, achieved 34 solo shows, 25 group shows, shown nine multimedia/installation/performance pieces, attained over 20 years’ curatorial experience, five years’ art teaching experience, published two books, and my work is included in six public collections, including the Smithsonian Institution which has traveled with my work.
I received the Parents Choice Gold Award for the children's book My Heroes, My People: African Americans and Native Americans in the West which I co-authored with Ruth Katcher in 1999 and which preceded the "Black and Red" exhibition the following year.
In addition to these achievements and the aforementioned examples of television exposure, I have taken part in panel discussions; the most recent being hosted in March 2016 by the Dwelaa Artist Collective in Baltimore. I have also enjoyed being featured in print since 1992. Examples include The New York Times, New Yorker, New Orleans Times and The Baltimore Sun. Quite recently, I've had the privilege of being featured in the Bmore Art journal (an initiative of Baltimore artist Cara Ober), in both the online (2015) and print (2016) versions. My portrait of Pocahontas from "Black and Red" was also featured in Heike Paul's The Myths That Made America (2014, published by [transcript] in Germany).
With regard to my goals, I am committed to lifelong learning and innovation and continue to work towards acquiring new knowledge and skills including a move into photography within three years. In 2014, for example, I learned to operate a French Tool Press. Within five years, I would count it an honor to have my work portrayed in a retrospective exhibition in a prestigious museum, as well as extending the reach of my work to countries outside the United States. I also intend to add to The Presidents series with a portrait of each newly elected president and first lady in the longer term. As an aside, in the event that Hillary Clinton becomes president, how would one refer to the husband? I am eagerly awaiting the results.
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