Sarah Morrison
Shore birds figure prominently in the recent work of sculptor Bill Rogers and 2-D artist Sarah Morrison. Patient and sharp-eyed gleaners, they are specialists in the mundane and easily overlooked. A willet can spot a cockle or limpet and open it up to reveal something alive and sustaining. In this way, he functions as both model and role-model for the artists.
Sarah’s hand-bound book The Seekers takes the idea of the search as its theme. The series of gouache paintings (available in a limited edition of digital prints) were based on Manasota Key in Florida.
Englewood Beach is stunning for its biodiversity, as famous for its birding as it is for its wealth of fossils scattered in the sand. Fossil hunters flock there from all over the country--“zombies” who walk the beach at low tide with heads down, searching for ancient shark’s teeth and sea urchin palates. Birds and human troll the beach in quiet communion, searching for hidden treasure. Sarah counts herself one of their number.
Much of Sarah’s work is based on various collections: Stones, bones, and fossils. A burgeoning collection of Japanese papers inspired the collage work for the Stinson series, but the process of discovering the landscape image through layer upon layer of paper felt akin to the seeker’s thrill, when for all her concentrated toil, something unexpected sifts up to the surface.
For more information about Sarah Morrison, please visit her website.