Croix-First Blood

The ballad verse of the Blue Men from Lewis and the smith who did not name his dirk sing the chorus that I am Clan Morrison. The fixative that holds chalk and the rolled paper that smooths drawing say that I am an artist. In a college communication class, one of my term papers focused on St. Croix. It is tropical “Tammany Hall” and the “Muckrackers.” The island is one of the most left leaning in the West Indies except for Cuba. In 1493, the Caribs drove Columbus from the island. St. Croix was a colony of France until the Danes bought it in 1733, but the us bought it in 1917. The main industry was sugar and rum product until the late 1800’s, but Americans brought in Puerto Ricans to restart the sugar manufacturing. Morrisons are from Lewis.

St. Croix has a special mythology dotted with pirates. Behind everything on the right side is Eliza James McBean Clock Tower. Be everything on the left is the Steeple Museum originally called the Lord God of Sabbath Lutheran church however was turned into a military base after the church moved to the Dutch Reform Church in 1831. It was later a school and a hospital. Everything rests on a doorway  with leaves from St. George Village Botanical Garden which is on a former Danish plantation and an ancient Amerindian settlement. The wedges surroundings the barrel is from Point Udall, the most eastern point of the US. The barrel is for Cruzan Rum Factory which began immediately after the fall of prohibition and is one of the few distillers left on the island which continually equally produced sugar until the 1961. After twenty years, it made the island different in being not dependent on tourism. (it is currently owned by Beam, Inc.)The carnival feathered head dress is for Christmas carnival which first started in 1912 but restarted in 1952. The cannon cart is for Fort Frederik which is said to be the first place in the Caribbean to recognize the US and the slaves were emancipated in 1848. It is 9” x 12,” drawn with pencil and white chalk and completed recently.

The name of this piece is Marsh,  is 5” x 7.5” and drawn with pastel on cardboard recently. The unique nature of using color is the broad palette of colors. There is a lot of neon pink in white clouds.  I am from the Bayou, but trees were dominated so I found this fun. The domination of clouds is a different element. If you are interested in buying this or any other of my work email me at MatthewMorrison76@yahoo.com to order.