Don Morris

Best known for his Our Heroes series, Don Morris' constructions with comic books recall memories of the Pop Art of the sixties when Andy Warhol reigned supreme. In Our Heroes the ever popular comic book is transformed into energetic architectural elements that are highly textured and brightly colored.

From a distance the viewer sees only the interplay of colors and texture, but as the viewer is drawn closer, the super heroes of the comic book fly, struggle, and climb before us in small fragments and vignettes. Word bubbles from the comic book text are clearly visible throughout the pieces and the viewer can read the dialog of our action heroes. The viewer, almost without exception, also experiences a spontaneous, delightful, impulse for a tactile inspection of the uniformly undulating surface of gentle peaks and curves in the folds of its comic book pages.

Don Morris was born in New Orleans in 1935 and obtained his doctorate degree at Louisiana State University. He recently moved his studio from Coral Gables, Florida, to Rancho Santa Fe, California.

According to Don, “Although there are many aspects of my work that can be intellectualized, the fundamentals still require that inner aesthetic sense. But in the final analysis, it is the viewer that deems my work either 'art' or 'folly.' I ply my trade before a thousand critics.”