Steve Morrison's Blog, page 24
March 5, 2011
Storm Warning
90 min landscape study.
March 4, 2011
Book Review: Dream of Red Mansions
One of the greatest masterpieces of literature, reading this was an incredible experience. Poignant, funny, metaphysical, tragic, allegorical, psychologically profound, and highly entertaining, it bridges the worlds of heaven and earth, dreams and "reality," and is a truly astonishing achievement. Reading does not get any better than this--it really is up there with Don Quixote, The Divine Comedy, War and Peace, Shakespeare, and anything else you might name. As one Western scholar on the work noted, to "appreciate its position in Chinese culture, we must imagine a work with the critical cachet ofJames Joyce's Ulysses with the popular appeal of Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind – and twice as long as the two combined"...There is an excellent review here (http://www.complete-review.com...) if you are interested (it's listed in an alternate translation as "Story of the Stone").
March 3, 2011
March 2, 2011
March 1, 2011
Detail
From a portrait commission I'm working on....
More to come.
February 28, 2011
February 26, 2011
Tell A Fairy Tale Day
In honor of "Tell A Fairy Tale Day" 2011, I'm reposting the "Frog Prince" illustrations I did a couple years back. One of my favorites!
February 25, 2011
Book Review: Imagist Poetry, An Anthology
This was the first book of poems I acquired for myself at the age of sixteen or so (very much at random), and it's still a favorite. It introduced me to Wallace Stevens and D. H. Lawrence, two I now can't live without; but it also contains lots of really wonderful poets that I haven't found elsewhere, like Richard Aldington and F. S. Flint.
Here's a sample from Aldington (who was married to the much-more-well-known "H.D."):
I know you, poplar;
I have watched you since I was ten.
But if you had a little real love,
A little strength,
You would leave your nonchalant idle lovers
And go walking down the white road
Behind the waggoners.
There are beautiful beeches down beyond the hill.
Will you always stand there shivering?
Isn't that delightful? Lots of hidden treasures to be discovered in this little volume.
February 24, 2011
Bango!
As promised, here is Bango, my three-year-old daughter's imaginary friend. The above drawing was made with her collaboration. I was instructed on the colors and told that she should be jumping in the sky and catching a star.
Here is Eliza's description of Bango:
"She hugs me. She kisses me. She goes outside and plays on the playground with me. When I get home, she puts her shoes in the shoe basket. She loves everyone she knows! She never wants people to hit. She says prayers sometimes. She likes to play with me in my room. And she likes to be silly. She used to be mean. Then she falled on her knee. That's all!"
