There is a kind of attention the body learns before the mind catches up. Walking the southern stretch of Torrey Pines near my home, past Flat Rock and into the quieter wildness of the preserve, the wind arrives against exposed skin as information. The cliffs fracture in real time. Hoodoos spiral and dissolve. The wholeContinue reading "What Keeps Calling You / Palimpsest of Place"
Primal Aesthesis
Paintings and studies, 2023–2025 Between 2023 and late 2025, I undertook a sustained inquiry — through studies, paintings, and deepening academic work in depth psychology — into what I came to call the Primal Aesthesis series. The name itself points toward something pre-rational: aesthesis as raw sensory encounter, the body's original knowing before language intervenes.Continue reading "Primal Aesthesis"
Mythology Works on Paper
From the Sisyphean task, to Pandora's box, the Midas touch and Achilles' heel, characters from Greek, Roman, and indigenous cultures around the globe have an inescapable presence in everyday life and culture. The stories of these gods, goddesses, heroes and anti-heroes have been continually retold and reinterpreted in novels, poems, plays, music and in everyContinue reading "Mythology Works on Paper"
Figure Work, by Steven Morris
Certainly, beauty and sensuality play roles in my figurative work—not through sexual objectification, but rather the emotional grace that the figure uniquely expresses. By exploring the human figure, especially the female figure, I am working to express the power and grace of the living condition filled with paradoxes: strength, fragility, beauty, imperfection, and aliveness. -Continue reading "Figure Work, by Steven Morris"
Artwork amidst COVID-19
A crisis like no other. As the world sequestered itself, it was a time to inward: Literally and figuratively. I found myself in Mexico for a scheduled writing retreat for my book in the works called, "The Beautiful Business." This was right before the world shut down. China was just then being ravaged by theContinue reading "Artwork amidst COVID-19"
“Song of Innocence” (after Velázquez)
“Song of Innocence” — 72”x60” oil on canvas, with mixed media In Diego Velázquez seminal painting (the most critiqued painting in all of art history) “Las Meninas,” there is a pose and gesture of the artist in a state of pause—a wondering tilt of the head which acts as an invitation from the artist toContinue reading "“Song of Innocence” (after Velázquez)"
“Seer”
“Seer” — 60”x40” oil on canvas, with mixed media The “Seer” speaks to the accessibility and reachability of humans and mystery. The imaginative act is a core defining attribute of our humanity. Mystery and transcendence can be redefined in our human accessibility, as they hint at illusory things beyond human reach. The “Seer” is theContinue reading "“Seer”"
“Dance of Albion”
“Dance of Albion” - 72”x60” oil on canvas, with mixed media, 2019 “Man is All Imagination,” William Blake wrote, “God is Man & exists in us & we in him.” The “Dance of Albion” is a nod to Blake's color print litho from 1794. "Albion" is Blake's universal God-Man and carries an attitude of exaltationContinue reading "“Dance of Albion”"
“Harmony” at TEDx and Group Show
Harmony seems to be a potent and recurring theme for me as I step into early 2019. Defined as elements that are in accord, alignement and agreement with one another, harmony is a necessary entity in much of my work and life. When we are in harmony with our purpose, our vocation, our work, ourContinue reading "“Harmony” at TEDx and Group Show"
“Connection” Juried Show Award
The San Diego Museum of Art Artists Guild Open Juried Exhibition "Connections " at the Poway Center for the Performing Arts, Poway, California June 1 – June 30, 2018 Congratulations to our First Place Award of Excellence Winner: STEVEN MORRIS for his oil painting on wood panel The Infinite Self. Reposted from the San Diego MuseumContinue reading "“Connection” Juried Show Award"