Alaska-Native Expression

The sword of the fachans and the warning of the thistle declare I am Clan Morrison. The pure black of ebony and the search for frame swear that I am an artist. America’s greatest expression is Alaska which ironically was Russian who cannot express themselves and was successful making money with the Alaskan furs for the Russians. (The Russian American company was re-launched in the 1980’s) The tsar that sold Alaska to the US was Tzar Catherine the Great. (If Russians are reading this please explain why ya’ll sold it.) Alaska is the only state which has a Russian Orthodox Seminary.  The Russians brought bogsleging and the language to American from Alaska. The state shares the Y’upik people with Russia. Drhasbedany’a and the “Flower of Scotland” is Scotland’s “national anthem.”

Alaska has a very special and unique mythology. Saber wolves, tigers and Bigfoot ordain its crypto zoology but are not in the picture. The mountain beside everything is Suicide in Chugach State Park just outside of Anchorage. The bear is a Kodiak and is for Kodak Island and for the national preserve of that name which was started by FDR in 1941and for the bear itself that harasses most Alaskans. It ended up on the state quarter. Everything is on a totem pole which is for the Totem Heritage Center which was originally a pile of the poles which someone found in a desirted building and the nations they represents. It was started in 1976. The quiver is for the Alutiiq Museum and Archaeological Repository which was created after the Exxon Valdese oil spill. The snow goggles are for Inupiat Heritage Center which is primarily dedicated to whaling circumnavigation of the globe and Inupiat culture. It is 8” x 10,” drawn with pencil and white charcoal and completed recently.

 The name of this piece is Maguin, is 9” x 12” and drawn with ink July 2013. The name is the back road in Indiana which it is drawn. I drew it when my mother was dying of cancer. If you are interested in buying this or any other of my work email me at MatthewMorrison76@yahoo.com to order.

New Mexico-Pueblo

The kelpie (Water horse) crawling on shore of a Hibernian Island and a little person vanishing in thin air envisage that I am Clan Morrison.  The ink stone ground to paste and the Chi of a bamboo brush show I am an artist. American West has always captivated artist and New Mexico has a unique artistic nature. Ironically, it is said that New Mexico bound domestic mail has accidentally ended up in the wrong country, and Texas, actually,  gain importance as a staging and transportation route to a from Santa Fe in Spanish times.  Eventually, the Spanish just arrested illegal trappers and took them to Santa Fe too trade as Mexico City was too far away. The native non-violent native the Spanish called “Pueblo” meaning people, but they were multiple nations.    Adieus Huxley epitomized one of the state’s first nations in his book. New Mexico is called the land of enchantment as is the Val Loire in France, but when I rode though it mostly seemed hot and dry.  It was only  I-10 corridor. There is a photo of a kelpie. (Water horse)

The mythos of New Mexico is special from other states. Everything is on the New Mexican flag. It became the official flag in 1925 designed by archeologist Dr. Mera. He chose the Zia to share its meaning of “perfect friendship among united cultures.” (From the New Mexico flag pledge)  This symbol is considered sacred having four directional rays which are symbolic of compass, direction, seasons, and obligations such as strength, pure spirit, clear mind, and desire to help. The big jar is Pueblo pottery. The crating of the clay for the pot is called “picking flowers” because of the difficulty of preparing the clay such as letting it dry before grinding it with sand and broken pottery and adding water. The pueblo pots are not thrown on a wheel but columns of clay spirals coils stacked pukis with the outside scraped to create a smooth surface and the firing is called “Judgment Day.” The doll next to the pot is a Hopi kachina doll which represents the spirits they believe inhabitant their houses from February to July each year. They are made out of cotton wood root and the mask is important to the persona such as whorls on the head showing gender. (Hopi women on their wedding day do their hair in the same manner.) The weird saucer behind everything is a crashed device in Roswell from the 1949. Some say it in extraterational , and a recent German documentary said it was a fail Nazi experiment. The one thing that is known is the government covered something up. It is 9” x 12,” drawn with pencil and white charcoal and completed 2013.

This drawing I drew waiting to eat lunch at “Le Cutter” resenting Blois in the Val Loire, France. It is a out dour resterant in the maret place. The drawing is of the stairs up the wall next to it which the castle is on top. This was draw with pecils I had just bought at the largest independent bookstore in the city. (An American K-mart is bigger.)  If you are interested in buying this or any other of my work email me at MatthewMorrison76@yahoo.com to order.

Florida-Spanish Beach

The lone Highlander piper wale to the misty bannocks and the symbols on the standing stones read that I am Clan Morrison. The serenity of Japanese flute and the nature of artist anatomy chisel in the wind that I am an artist. I am a Southerner and for one semester I studied in Florida.(I is known for its beaches which I never got to see.) The Florida which I saw was not a Hawaii twin but large loblolly forest. It even has great cattle herds just like Texas. (In Houston a highway bypass was closed because of a long horn.)Many southern states have gator The history of the state is that Ponce De Leon discovered it but the Spanish only tried to colonize it because the Reformed wanted it, but the Americans got it in exchange for paying Spanish debt; the state seceded and was part of the Confederacy. The Florida that is well known only started in the 1920’s. The tourist Florida began in the 1950’s. The only first nation in Florida is the Seminole who are the descendents of Cree Nation bandits. The states one great immigrate population are from Cuba coming after the Communist revolution. My alarm clock is set to wake me up with bagpipe music

.

Florida has a very special mythology. It is also skunk ape country but the ape is not included in the picture. Behind everything is Castillo de San Marcos. It completed in 1695 by the Spanish to defend Florida from pirates and Georgia. The walls are made out of "coquina" (little shell) so the stone compressed instead of cracked when hit by cannon. It served under four governments and never fell to a siege. It was declared a national monument in 1900. Everthing is on a bed from the Coral Castle. The castle was made by the Latvian Edward Leedskalnin in 1920.After being dumped by his sixteen year-old financé, he moved to Florida and created the castle by moving the stones around like balloons. The object with the ladies on it behind the plane is a band wagon in the circus museum in the Ringling. The founder of “The Greatest Show on Earth” created it and opened as a museum of both art and show artifacts in 1954. It was reopening in 2000 under the University of Florida. The F-14A Tomcat is for the National Naval Aviation Museum. The orange is for the orange crop which was first grown in Florida in 1579. The great freezes changed the dynamic of the orange growing. The paw is for the other cryptid, the Florida black panther which some think is a  jaguarondi. It is 8” x 10,” drawn with pencil and white charcoal and completed recently.

 The name of this piece is Crow, is 12” x 18” and drawn with Sumi-e recently. Japanese crows are bigger then American crows. Many of the words for various birds have the word crow in them in kanji. In Shinto, crows intercede between the earth and the gods and are the gods warriors.  If you are interested in buying this or any other of my work email me at MatthewMorrison76@yahoo.com to order.

Puerto Rico-Tropical Keystone

The cry of the blacksmith’s daughter to the sea and the life of uisge-beatha sing to the lone islands that I am Clan Morrison. The Zen of an incomplete circle of black soot and the mixture of Chinese graphite and clay cry that I am an artist. Technically, Puerto Rico is not a state but neither is Virginia, but in 2012 with a non-binding referendum 54% of the population voted for statehood. My Puerto-Rican friend said that she did not what they wanted. It was Spain’s keystone of the Caribbean. British captured the island but retreated from it. The United States got the island as part of the end of the Spanish American War. Ironically the Island also has one of the largest Communist Party’s in the United States. (Its flag is the same design as the Communist Cuban Flag which is why the blue is darker because the federal government changed it in the 1950’s with the Cold War, but the government is letting them return to their own flag in recent times.) It used to be a “rum island” but the industry went overseas. There actually a uprising to gain independence in the 1930’s but it is becoming American. I like the song Pour Me a Glass As Well.

The island has a very special mythology. Chupacabras are native to Puerto Rico but not in the picture.  Behind everything is the Faro del Morro at El Castillo de San Felipe del Morro in San Juan in the San Juan National Historic Site overlooking San Juan Bay. Originally a circular tower completed 1540, it was added to until it reached its current it current size completed in 1787. (Except fort the bunker added during WWII) On the left side with a few things resting on it, the wood barrel machine is an 1850’s corn mill at the Hacienda Buena Vista in Barrio Magüeyes. The hacienda was one of the biggest on the island until the 1950’s and is now kept as it was in the 1850’s. On the trough of the mill is a Puerto Rican parrot from the El Yunque National Forest which was honored with a national park quarter and was found in 1876 by the Spanish. The head and the hut are for the Tibes Indigenous Ceremonial Center. The Antique firetruck on the mill is for Parque de Bombas which is one of the most iconic buildings on the island. It is 8” x 10,” drawn with pencil and white charcoal and completed recently.

The name of this piece is Fencepost, is 9” x 12” and drawn with ink October 2013. It was between two cornfields in Indiana were the stream divides the land the tree scared to form an eye as the fence ran out permitting a taste of nature I was worried because there was a loose dog in the area. This was from my first year as an artist the month my mom died. If you are interested in buying this or any other of my work email me at MatthewMorrison76@yahoo.com to order.

Utah-Mormon

The powers of a blessed claymore which fights evil and the great shees of the North Sea vibrate that I am Clan Morrison. The focused life force of stone ink and the breath of graphite declare that I am an artist. The West and art share the same breath as seen in Utah.  It is honored with five majestic national parks and is said to formerly have had a lake that scientist named Bonneville. Utah has dinosaur bones and five First Nation reservations too.. With the Olympics that came, their ski resorts are great. Utah is called the “Bee hive state.” This is supposedly from the book of Mormon. (Mormonism started in the Cleveland area.)Utah is where Brigham Young brought the Mormons to after Joseph Smith was shot. Mormons and the surrounding regions fell in to conflict creating the “Mormon Wars.” Utah would not have become a state, but the Mormon Apostle abolished polygamy which is still practices among the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. (Thus Sister Wives) By the 1910’s it turned into a Mormon Rhode Island.  I am studying Highland swordsmanship.  

Utah has a unified mythology. The biggest thing on the picture is a sea gull. According to legend the mountain at the end of the Trail was said to look like a seagull pointing to Salt Lake City. Also A flock of seagull miraculously ate the locus. The flower in front of the bird is a Sego Lily which is the state flower. the Mormons of the 1880’s survived on the bulb of this plant and were called "bulbeater." During the First World War  in was Utah’s poppy. Everything is on Indian Rice Grass, the state grass. They survived on that too. In the back of everything is the Mormon Tabernacle of Salt Lake City. Church historians Elwin Robison and Randall Dixon said about it:

“However, whatever the Tabernacle designers lacked in formal schooling, they made up for with sound, practical experience, careful observation of the structures they had built and the driving vision of what they wanted to create. The Tabernacle is a startlingly modern building for its time. Not based on any style of formal precedent, it anticipates the functionalism of early 20th-century architecture. It truly was entirely new, and unprecedented throughout the world.”

 It is 8” x 10,” drawn with pencil and white charcoal and completed 2015.

 The name of this piece is Right of Spring, is 12” x 18” and drawn with Sumi-e recently. Soyoto (cherry blossom) is an important part of Japanese mythology as it is part of both new life and death. The Japanese national weather predict when the trees blossom.  “Tidings of spring” is what high right corner says. The bird is the Japanese White-eye. A weird 1950’s has the same title. If you are interested in buying this or any other of my work email me at MatthewMorrison76@yahoo.com to order.

Massachusetts-America

The echoes of the highland charge and the designs of the leather bound targe breath to the lone islands that I am Clan Morrison. The pen that hangs around my neck and the research that is applied to every work declares me an artist. One of the great art centers of the US is in Boston. Massachusetts is also known for the pilgrims and Puritans. After the first horrible winter, March 1607 Squanto greeted them with "Hello Englishmen." Then Massachusetts grabbed Plymouth and the Salem Witch trials, then Boston killed the pilgrim’s Indian friends. At least that is how the story goes. The state was over liberalized in “Community” and cried over for the Boston Marathon. I have worn a kilt. 

Massachusetts has possibly the oldest of truly American mythology. Behind everything on the Left is Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1636 and was named after Rev. John Harvard of Charlestown because the bequeathed his library to the school. Its shield was officially adopted in 1843 when President Josiah Quincy found the Overseer’s sketch from 1644 in 1836.behind everything on the other side is the Old State House which is on the site of the 1657 Town House which burned in 1711. A visors galley was added to Representatives Hall in 1766 making the first average observer legislative debate. Outside the balcony where the Declaration of Independence was first proclaimed is where the Boston Massacre took place. It was the Boston’s city hall from 1830 to 1841. Everything is on a tea crate from the Boston Tea party in Boston harbor. The battle club facing left is of a Wampanoag leader. These are the Indians of the Thanksgiving story. These are the other Praying Indians are the Wampanoag who were converted by the pilgrims. The rest died in King Phillip’s War or fled to Canada. The one facing left is a shillelagh for the Irish immigrants. Impaled in the crate is a whaling harpoon for the New Bedford Whaling Museum. The state was a great whaling port from 1672 to mid-20^th century. The pendent on the necklaces on the shillelagh is for the Gloucester Fisherman’s Memorial. On the harbor side of the memorial it says “THEY THAT GO DOWNTOTHE SEA IN SHIPS 1623-1923.” It is to honor the tercentennial of the city and those who died at sea. The city was shown on the show Wicked Tuna. The skull is for the ax murder at Lizzie Borden House which is said to be haunted. On the bottom edge on the right side is cranberries. Cranberries weer first officially havested  by Native Americans in 1500’s. The first million barral state’s crop was 1953. Some of the states vines have produced for more than 150 years old. It is 8” x 10,” drawn with pencil and white charcoal and completed recently.

   The name of this piece is Oak, is 9” x 12” and drawn with ink October 2013. This is from some one’s front yard in Indiana across the street from a corn field. This was from my first year as an artist the month my mom died.  If you are interested in buying this or any other of my work email me at MatthewMorrison76@yahoo.com to order.

Vermont- Green

The mourn of the tinker’s song and the smoke of torched breathe to the North Sea winds that I am Clan Morrison. The tao of meditation music and the scent of pine soot breathe that I am an artist.  As a Southerner and a Texan, I have a deep respect for independent regions and Vermont was a free country from its declaration of independence in 1777 until it joined the union in 1791 after sorting things out with New York. (It was the fourteenth state.) The young republic was the people who actually seized Fort Ticonderoga. Benedict Arnold was original the most loyal to the United States of the Green Mountain Boys. The name supposedly is from Samuel de Champlain trying to navigate the namesake lake yelled “Les verts monts!!” (Apparently, New Englanders cannot spell.) He also gave the name to the Green Mountain range. I was a balladeer in collage.  

Vermont has an interesting mycology. Behind everything is the Great Eddy Bridge. It was built in 1833 and is currently operating. The bracings were added in the 1970’s. Vermont has the highest concentration of covered bridges of any other state. Everything is on the porch of one of the famed “Hunting Lodges” in the state. These are mansions that where built 1800’s for fames “robber barons.” The log handed cup is a traditional maple syrup ladle. According to Algonquin legend, a chief hit a maple tree and his wife took the sap thinking it was water but when the meat was boiled in it was sweet so the named the sap “sinzibukwud,” sweet buds. Original the trees were taped to make sugar until tin cans were invented to keep the syrup. Sap collection was sped up in 1959 with plastic pipes. The ski pole next to it is for the skiing industry which was started by Norwegians to get threw snow closed roads.  The creation of ski lifts in the 1930’scaused the industry to blossom. The little pot on the bottom right is for Vermont pottery which started after the American Revolution. The bird on the handle is a hermit thrush (became state bird 1941) which was not given a song until it ate nearly all the insects. The flower against the ladle is the state flower red clover.  It is 9” x 12,” drawn with pencil and white charcoal and completed 2014.

 The name of this piece is Église de Sante Louis, is 5.5” x 8.5” and drawn with pencil July 2013. I drew this picture during my summer school class in Blois, France. The cathedral was next to my bus stop.  I drew the whole time I was there. (My camera kept braking down.) I drew it the last week I was there. If you are interested in buying this or any other of my work email me at MatthewMorrison76@yahoo.com to order.