New Jersey- Devil

Misty magical islands off from Scotland and beautiful, angelic creatures that transform into seals when they wear a skin call me Clan Morrison. Magical fairy knolls and the fraternity and oddity of artist declare me an artist. The art Mecca of New York is completed in New Jersey as the Statue of Liberty is actually in New Jersey. Also, Benjamin Franklin’s son was the last royal governor of there.  The name New Jersey is from the British protectorate and Francophone of Jersey which is officially independent. Ironically there is some confusion about the “Jersey Boys” and people from Jersey island. (They are the only people who speak French with an English accent) But, the state, also, has a dark side. I ask my father what to put for New Jersey and he said crime rate. To hide the slums from the interstate, high green, concrete walls were built in front of them. The government is said to have caused the greatest traffic jam in American history to show its power. One should also not forget about Jersey Shore © and “Boardwalk Empire.” In regard to the first sentence, I write this after a bout of monastic meditation.  

  

New Jersey is renowned for its mythology. Everything is on the famous Atlantic City’s Board Walk. It was created in 1870 to protect the trains and fancy hotels from the sand but it was not until 1883 that the hundreds of store were allowed on it. The Boardwalk did not gain its current size and design came in 1916 and gambling coming in the 1970’s. Everything is in front of a water fall, Great Falls.  Falls are from the City of Paterson and created a place for the mill with the Society for Establishing Useful Manufacturers (S.U.M.) in 1792. The light bulb is for Thomas Edison’ “Invention Factory” in Menlo Park, New Jersey.  The plank on the light bulb stand has the symbol of the Appalachian trail which goes trough that state. The weird horse with bat wings is my rendition of a “Jersey Devil,” New Jersey’s cryptid. (Their Bigfoot flies.)The story of its origin goes that Mrs. Leed pray to the Devil when she was in labor with her 13^th child for that child to be a demon.  The creature supposedly lives in the southern Pine Barrens of New Jersey.  The cannon is for the cannon that the mythical “Molly Pitcher” manned  after her husband was incapacitated during the American Revolution as the state was the cross roads of that war which is memorialized on its state quarter. The flower is the state flower of violet. New Jersey was drawn recently with pencil and charcoal and is 8” x 10.”

The name of this piece is “Cat” and is Sumi-e on rice paper which is 12” x 18” early December 2015. Japanese have a unique obsession with cats with Hello Kitty © as an example, but is not a royal or religious symbol. It could be from the Chinese good luck, home statue of a gold cat waving its right front paw in blessing over the passers. I used my sleeping cat as the model. If you are interested in buying this or any other of my work email me at MatthewMorrison76@yahoo.com to order.