JAMES P. MORSE

Morse’s work is not intended to describe scenery the way that a photograph does. Instead, a visualrecord of thinking, feeling, and responding to the world emerges on the canvas. The passage of timeis evident in the careful mark making and craft-work that occur as a result of the artist Being-in-theworld. The paintings are built up, striving to look like something made of paint, so that there is noconfusion about the illusion of pictorial space. These are objects of emotional metaphor that respondto the ontological awareness that we exist, not reproductions of perceived beauty. The canvases showthe process of struggling to understand the space we exist within by retaining evidence of geometricgrids, the modification of composition and color choices, and the patina of thought and craftsmanshipas the artist works to comprehend existence within a world that we are somehow consciouslydetached from. In this sense, the paintings document the world’s contemplation of the artist as muchas they record the artist’s contemplation of the world, for they are one and the same.