L. SCOOTER MORRIS
“I create sculpted paintings to visually seduce the viewer into exploring new ideas.”
ARTIST STATEMENT
I am a sensory illusionist.
I gather the experience of being in a moment, at a place, at a time. I use that information to create the image. It is the sense of how the light and the color filters through the image and the atmosphere you might be surrounded by at that moment in time. There is a thread of something real that exists above everything else. And in trying to reach the truth, you are trying to make it real through beauty, through something beautiful. In that ultimate moment of sensory experience also exists a glimmer of hope, the promise of something bigger than we are.
My goal is to make artwork that is so beautiful it cuts to the heart of what is true, to create art that is of this moment but exists as something timeless. It resonates with the a person viewing the work as real although it is not quite realistic. It has meaning, although that is not specifically stated because of its use of color or symbolism, or imagery.
REPRESENTATION
AURELIA GALLERY
414 CANYON ROAD, SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO 505.501.2915 INFO@AURELIAGALLERY.COM
NYC ARTWALK
NYCARTWALK.COM INFO@NYCARTWALK.COM
ARTSY
ARTSY.NET INQUIRIES@ARTSY.NET
OPEN SEA
ARTLAND
ARTLAND.COM CLAUS@ARTLAND.COM
SHORT BIO
When I was six years old I went to the room where my grandmother was sewing something on a sewing machine. She was self taught at design and construction, but I now believe she could have made anything. I asked her to sew a dish towel in several places, she asked me why and I explained that it would become a fashionable carry-all. She immediately told my mother and the two of them found art classes for me to attend. Since that time, I have been using many mediums to explore “truth” through creativity.
I was lucky to have grown up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where there were incredible arts programs, including through the Carnegie Museum. I began my arts education through the public schools and in the museum programs. Later, I attended the Tyler School of Art, Temple University in Philadelphia and Rome, Italy. I left school for a year to move to Los Angeles, California and received my B.F.A. from the University of Southern California. Subsequently, I took postgraduate courses at UCLA.
Years later, after moving to New Mexico, the Southwest inspired my multi-dimensional art practice.
ECSTATIC SUN®
Ecstatic Sun® is the parent company I started in 1985, as the umbrella for all of the different types of art and fine craft that I create. As the internet became a place to show and sell my work, it was a unique name that had gained some reputation for the unique items I invent. Ecstatic Sun is the parent company for the many art endeavors and things I create.
I gather the experience of being in a moment, at a place, at a time and use that information to create the image, a wearable piece of art, or an art object to wear. It is the sense of how the light and the color filters through the image and the atmosphere you might be surrounded by at that moment in time. This concept informs the paintings.
There is a thread of something real that exists above everything else. And in trying to reach the truth, you are trying to make it real through beauty, through something beautiful. In that ultimate moment of sensory experience also exists a glimmer of hope, the promise of something bigger than we are.
Sculpted Paintings which I created over twenty years ago, is a technique that creates a three dimensional perspective through the use of applied canvas and mixed media. My goal is to create art that is of this moment but also captures something timeless. It resonates with one viewing the work as representational although it is not quite accurately realistic. It has a meaning they experience although that meaning is only found in the use of color or symbolism, or imagery. My desire is to make artwork that is so beautiful it cuts to the heart of what is true, whether it is in the medium of a painting, a piece of clothing, or a object d’arte.
FULL BIOGRAPHY
I was lucky to have grown up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where there were incredible arts programs, including through the Carnegie Museum. I began my arts education through public education and in the museum programs. Later, I attended Tyler School of Art, Temple University in Philadelphia and Rome, Italy. I left school for a year to move to Los Angeles, California and received my B.F.A. from University of Southern California. Subsequently, I took post graduate courses at UCLA. After, moving to New Mexico, I was greatly influenced by the atmosphere and environment and that influenced me to evolve the style of painting I call, Sculpted Paintings. There is the artist's intention behind the work, there is also the meaning the viewer has upon seeing the work. Combined, the work's meaning is elevated.
I work primarily on created surfaces that are acrylic and canvas on canvas and varying texture and usually employing mixed media. It gives me the freedom to work fast or slow and I am able to make choices about where I want the work to go with out the canvas getting away from me. When you are working on a complicated subject the intersection of material and subject can get out of control and ruin the painting. The materials I use, allow a certain space in time. One of the paintings was chosen by Saatchi Gallery to show electronically during the show about the Rolling Stones.Another cool moment was, two of the paintings were recently shown on the twenty- five story billboard in Times Square, in New York. One of the pieces is called: United States of Gun. It is an American Flag interpretation using Guns to replace the stars. The stripes tell a weather worn story of time and effort to defend and remake our history.
The other painting shown there: Another American Flag. A beautiful landscape that speaks of the hope and myth surrounding the flag's iconic image. This painting is based mostly on the sky and our aspiration as a country, to aspire to higher goals. One of my recent one-women gallery shows was in Santa Fe, New Mexico. It was called Tread Softly, inspired by the Yeats poem: "Aedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven". There were thirty paintings,all created within a two year time frame, all relating to our shared aspiration as dreamers for a better life, wishing for a safer, stronger,more evolved future.
The flag as an iconic image touches almost every one in a personal way, it begs further exploration. The work has taken on a life of its own through these paintings and I am intrigued with the possibilities of where it could go and what it could become. This past year I began a new series of paintings called, The Money Pieces. These paintings combine the materials and iconic references of money landscape images, the flag and other more personal images. In one piece called Money to Burn, I have a bonfire burning paper money, bills blowing through the air and Money that is growing on the trees. Some incorporate the United States Flag, but I am working on using the flag of other countries also, as it wrestles with the politics of world leaders, currency, and changing norms.
CURRICULUM VITAE
ART IN PUBLIC PLACES
Times Square Billboard 2022
American Cancer Foundation
Carlsbad Mental Health Center
First National Bank
Times Square 2014
The Louvre Museum in Paris, 2015
Scope Basel/Miami Beach 2016
City Hall Albuquerque New Mexico
GALLERIES
Aurelia Gallery – Santa Fe, New Mexico
East Village Art Collection NY, NY
ARC Gallery, Chicago
Wiford Gallery Santa Fe, NM
Alpha Gallery Denver, CO
Gallery G Pittsburgh, PA
Parker Blake Denver, CO
Art Center Pacific Palisades, CA
Tohono Chul Gallery Tucson, AZ
Gorman Fine Arts Los Angeles, CA
Kathleen Warner Gallery Durango, CO
Gallery 20 Farmington, NM
Durango Arts Center Durango, CO
One Caroline Place Santa Fe, NM
One Artist Road Santa Fe, NM
Maui Gallery Maui, HI
EXHIBITIONS
Four Corners Juried Show
City of Farmington One Woman Show
Three Rivers Art Juried Exhibit
Farmington Annual Art Auction
Times Square Summer 2014
Collected Works
Artists of New Mexico
The Louvre Museum’s 2015 Summer Show
Wiford Gallery 2015 “Treading on My Dreams” Solo Show
Saatchi Gallery in Paris, “Exhibitionism,” 2016
Double Sided East Village Art Collection New York, NY 2022
The Sky Above Biafarin online exhibit January to March 2024
Art Basel Miami Red Dot 2024
Holiday Aurelia Gallery 2024
Colors Gone Wild 2024 Aurelia Gallery
Love MVA 2024
Tribeca Arts Show 2023
Exchange Rate Santa Fe New Mexico 2025
Outside the Box New Mexico Art League 2023
Tipping Point Aurelia Gallery 2023
NYC Artwalk including Soho and Times Square Billboard 2022
East Village Art Collection Manhattan, NY 2022
Packard Group National Exhibition Vermillion SD 2022
Objects of Art Santa Fe, 2022
Art Party San Francisco 2022
Her Story online Exhibition - <Manhattan Arts International 2021
Exhibition Nasty Women New Haven, Conn. 2020
PRIVATE COLLECTIONS AND COMMISSIONS
Beecham Products, Inc.
Dane Advertising
Claude Brinegar
Lloyd Cymrot
Cohen Fine Arts
Stephen & Wendy Siegel
Hal & Beverly Haddon
Rodman Boston, Jr.
David Abbey
Robin Ley
Beth Ritter
Barbara Baker
Steve & Jane Hochberg
Sandy Villa
Steven Cuden
Karl Racine
CHARITIES
Boys & Girls Club
The Horse Shelter
Therapeutic Riding Services of Colorado
Bandanas & Boots
Buckaroo Ball of Santa Fe, NM
Art Feast, Santa Fe, NM
BOOKS
Sculpted Paintings, 2011
Our American Journey, 2015
The Voice of Artists, 2016
PRINT COVERAGE
Circle Magazine 2024
Contemporary Art Curator Magazine 2024 Furture of Art Masterpiece Award
Spotlight Magazine 2023
New Mexico Bar Bulletin Cover 2022
Peace Awards -International Cultural Management 2022
Cover: Santafean October/November 2020
StoryBeat with Steve Cuden episode #165 2021
The Santa Fe New Mexican
The Santa Fe New Mexican Pasatiempo
the Magazine
The Daily Times
Durango Herald
The Denver Post
PUBLICATIONS
New Mexico Bar Bulletin 2022
Peace Awards -International Cultural Management 2022
Cover: Santafean October/November 2020
StoryBeat with Steve Cuden Episode #165 2021
Sculpted Paintings, 2011
Our American Journey, 2015
The Voice of Artists, 2016
EDUCATION
Tyler School of Art, Temple University Philadelphia, PA
Tyler School of Art, Temple University, Rome, Italy
University of Southern California, Degree in Fine Arts (BFA), 1979