My Art is in the Bond & Grace edition of Alice in Wonderland!

It’s a total dream come true to finally share some news that I’ve been keeping top secret for 18 months… I have created art for the Bond & Grace Art Novel edition of Alice in Wonderland. For the past year and a half, I have worked alongside a dozen other international artists and scholars from across the country to create what is a genre defying work of art in itself. 

You can grab a copy here.

Here are the paintings I created for Alice in Wonderland and my meaning behind them. This is truly one of my career highlights so far. It’s a dream come true to contribute to an edition of one of the most beloved stories of all time, to work alongside such an incredible group of people and to have made this art that I really believe in. 

“Youth’s Mark on the Passage of Time,” 48x60”

from Bond & Grace: “Painted alongside her son Tennessee, Morgan’s abstract work is an exploration of the inner child, and what it means to reconnect with and care for this child as an adult. Phrases, icons, and scribbles cover the canvas, symbolizing the progression from innocence to experience and childhood to adulthood. With the exception of the highly visible ‘mother,’ the marks painted by Morgan and those painted by her son are almost indiscernible.”

All of my work is really a journey with the Inner Child, a shift in my art that began when I had my child ten years ago. How can I welcome wonder and delight? How can I be more present in the practice and the making of each mark? My son spent many, many hours with me inside my studio, and he was always welcome to paint and make marks. Watching him create was so pure. Each gesture was so present in the moment, without judgment or thought. It blew my mind. It inspired and challenged me to shift the angle of my gaze, experience and action. My son and I have painted six large works together since he was three years old. Now ten, his perspective has changed. He has grown. He vacillates between longing to be little and longing to be older. Time is moving so fast and in unusual ways. We painted this piece together, and the first marks he made spell the word MOTHER. With other phrases, icons and scribbles layered throughout the piece, it’s almost indiscernible which marks belong to him and which marks belong to me. But “Mother,” I could not adulterate. It’s a word like honey, a threadlike anchor that, when spoken, pulls you from the dream, cradles you in secure arms, tells you it will be alright. “Today I am small/ I do not want to be small,” hidden in the piece: a cry of both child and adult, echoing Alice’s journey.

Available to move into a collection here. 

“A Gossip of Flowers,” diptych (each piece is 36x48”)

from Bond & Grace: “Morgan visualizes the talking flowers as both gossiping and as a ‘gossip,’ meaning a group of very close companions. Her work also alludes to Floriography, the hidden meaning Victorian women applied to flowers in order to authentically communicate in an otherwise formal society. Morgan calls us to recontextualize the talking flowers as a symbol of the revolutionary power of feminine communication.”

Did you know the word “gossip” originally meant a group of very close companions? Over centuries the word has evolved to mean “idle chatter.” I think of these verbose flowers, planted exactly where they are in such close proximity to each other. We are in their world here, a phytomorphized universe of the flowers. Alice is a flower. The Red Queen is a flower. The Victorians had this obsession with Floriography, the language of flowers. It allowed them to convey messages that their very formal, stiff society wouldn’t otherwise allow. This garden of chattering flowers feels revolutionary in this sense: a gossip of flowers and ladies speaking freely.

Available to move into a collection here. 

“Caught in a Yarn” 36x36”

from Bond & Grace: “In this commanding abstract composition, chaos and disorientation reign. The swirling, circular shape serves as a portal both into and out of Wonderland. The threshold between the worlds is symbolized by cattails. Figures hidden within a spiral of thick brushstrokes illustrate Alice’s blurring reality as she shakes the dwindling Red Queen into the materializing kitten.”

Available to move into a collection here. 

“A Large Bright Thing,” 36x48”

from Bond & Grace: “An outstretched arm symbolizes the human desire to strive for what is always out of reach. Morgan’s work meditates on how the markers of our desire may appear distinct, but as we move closer, they morph and change. A Large Bright Thing calls us to question the last time we were truly content, and not simply chasing a series of ever-changing dreams.”

I wanted to approach this work as a more literal depiction of the passage, even in its dreamlike state. Like trying to recall a dream, there are markers that we can distinctly remember and then the objects morph and change. We may not have the full picture but we have a sense of it— reaching for the prettiest things up high. It’s nonsensical yet such a metaphor for “civilized” culture throughout post-industrial history. Always striving, always reaching and the prettiest things are just out of reach.

Available to move into a collection here.