Alexander Morris, Artist By Jennifer Coates
There is something deeply meaningful and representational about symbiotic relationships, those often unexplainable and sometimes paradoxical relationships between two different organisms which are advantageous to both species. Such interconnected relationships exist everywhere, from the depths of the ocean to the wilds of nature, to the sacred space between man and God, to the musty studio where an artist and a blank canvas become one.
For Alexander Morris, a Utah born and bred artist who now resides in Rumford, symbiotic relationships have inspired him his whole life, and have illuminated his paths as a man, a father, and an artist. As a boy, growing up under the shadow of the Rocky Mountains, he was a student of how these relationships thrived between the most unlikely of creatures - the high-flying raven and the stealthy wolf who work in unison to find their food sources; the secretive sea anemone and the colorful clownfish who work in tandem to provide shelter and nutrients.
Local artist Alexander Morris, seen here with some of his original artwork, was a featured guest at the Attleboro Arts Festival, August 2021
Beyond nature are the deeper, more spiritual connective relationships that have guided Alex his whole life. Those symbiotic relationships that exist between chaos and order, passion and logic, man and woman ~ these all find expression in his art. The most important such relationship explored by Alex in his work is the relationship between his mortal being and the heavenly being he places his faith in. This relationship informs literally every piece of his art and has manifested itself on every canvas he has touched ~ whether it is a canvas stretched taut on a wooden frame or a sketch pad where he has doodled an animated drawing of his three-year old daughter Rhiannon. Inter-connection is personified in Alexander Morris’s art, and you can feel it when you see it and feel it when you are immersed in it. Alexander always knew that art would be his life’s passion, second only to the love he has for his wife Angie and two daughters, Rhiannon and 10-month old Iona. From the time he was a young boy, he knew he could “draw what he saw.” He loved imitating his favorite cartoon characters from Calvin & Hobbes (perhaps fooling Bill Watterson himself!) and later thrived as a student at the University of Utah, where he received his BFA with a focus in painting and drawing.
Morris pauses for a moment of reflection in his Rumford studio
In high school, an advanced placement class opened his mind to painting, a love which has determined his main medium to this day: acrylic paint. Alex makes his own paint, using compounds and ink or powder pigments to
