James Morse: Because There Are Stars

About

This new set of works is a visual record of thinking, feeling, and responding to the world using a language that is more felt than understood. Dark landscapes show moody images of wildlife and foliage, prairie flowers dancing in the wind, and choppy waves sweeping across a lake. The muted color scheme gives a sense of reflection, melancholy, and introspection while vast landscapes and water reflections inspire a sense of expansiveness and calm, causing contemplation of the inner self. Morse says, “I use the imagery of land as a language to explore the emotions that arise from contemplating our existence. The universe, and our presence within it, is a mystery. Contemplating our existence gives rise to the full spectrum of emotion. That we exist at all is both joyful and terrifying, beautiful and hideous, constructive and destructive.”

Evident in his careful mark making as an artist, is the passage of time. Morse aims to depict his internal existential struggle through his paintings so that they are objects of emotional metaphor, not reproductions of perceived beauty. The accumulated patina of thought and craftsmanship are the cornerstones of Morse’s contemplative landscapes and the deliberate buildup of paint leaves no confusion about the illusion of pictorial space. Morse says, “Our existence is mystifyingly confusing while essentially simple and easily understood. It is difficult to discuss such contradictory emotions with words. Images and music explore and express feelings with an acuity that words do not.”