ymbols and ymbolism

 Summary biographical information:   Steve Morris is a fourth generation Floridian.  He currently resides in Miami-Dade County, Florida.  He is a graphic artist (oil, pen & ink, and pastel) as well as a Reference Librarian, Business and Legal Research Specialist, in the Green Library, Florida International University.

  Steve Morris was born in Panama City, Florida, to a U.S. Air Force staff sargeant and his wife.  As a result, Steve grew up travelling and living in a new place every 3 months to 3 years, including 2½ years in Japan.  While a child in Japan, his family's landlady bought him his first art kit, which was a beginning. 

  After returning from Japan, Steve lived in Washington and Bay Counties, Florida. He graduated from Bay County High School in Panama City in 1970.

  After attending junior college (as it was then called) at Gulf Coast Community College in Panama City, he earned a bachelor's degree with a major in Religion from Mars Hill College, Mars Hill, N.C., in 1974 (with lots of history and languages thrown in), a Masters of Religious Education from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort Worth, TX, in 1977, and a Masters of Library Science from the George Peabody College for Teachers, Nashville, TN, in 1981 (including his first computer language, Pilot.)  While earning his M.L.S., he worked in the Management Library of Owen Graduate School of Management, Vanderbilt University.

  Before moving back to Florida as the Business Librarian at Florida International University's library in 1984, Steve Morris was the Business Librarian in the Ekstrom Library, University of Louisville, for 3 years.

 Artistic background information:   Other than a one-semester 7th grade class (Miss Barnes, Mowat Jr. High) and a 9th grade class (Mrs. Taylor, Jenks Jr High) in art, Steve Morris has honed his artistic skills through practice, reading, and (limited) study and imitation of original art works.  After his undergraduate education, his effort towards the practice of art waned, except for copious, complex doodles, which often became pen & ink works.  In 1988 he began devoting more time to re-learning the use of oils.  This led to an exhibit of works in 1992 at the library.  His works are held in many private collections across the U.S. 

  Basically painting in two styles (yes, this is frowned upon), one is a continuation of the Celtic-inspired doodles/designs as modified by influence from van Gogh's paintings.  Many of the doodles still result in ink designs. Others, however, seem more appropriate in oils, especially in the particular style adopted after a third visit to Europe in 1992.  This trip was made specifically to study the style of van Gogh at the Rijksmuseum Van Gogh in Amsterdam and the Rijksmuseum Kröller-Müller in the Hoge Veluwe National Park, near Arnhem.  This brightly colored style usually consists of two layers of different hues of the selected colors, the undercoat being slightly wider.  The spaces between the lines/forms is usually filled in with daubs of paint that reflect combinations of the hues in the nearer lines.  This particular style is apparent (to some degree) in the works of van Gogh while in the asylum at St. Rémy.

  The artist's landscapes, although also brightly colored, reflect a more "naturalist" style.  In some there is dynamic movement, especially in the clouds.  Others, however, have a more serene atmosphere, yet without losing the sense of activity.  The waterfalls are of particular interest in that they do not reflect the thinking of either the artists nor the photographers who describe catching the falling water on their respective media.  None of the writers and artists this artist has read or observed have ever watched a waterfall with any observation.  Even the smallest falls do not have constant flow, but, rather, reflect the uneven surges of the water, much like the waves on a beach, albeit in miniature.  Even the sounds of waterfalls reflect this ebb and flow, with waves clearly visible on the surface of the falling water.  It is this constant change, even more than any rocks or projections within the falls, that give each waterfall its own character.  Indeed, the movement of water and clouds (which are much easier to draw than paint!) is what often attracts the artist to paint a scene.

  Some of the favorite paintings of the artist actually combine some form of geometric pattern within the arrangement of the landscape.  In his largest painting, three swirls of color (burnt umber, yellow ochre, and burnt sienna) spin inward in the delineation of a gully and ridges in western Wyoming.  These three earth tones fill up the lower 2⁄3 of the canvas, beneath a pale blue sky.  Ultimately, patterns, whether visual, verbal, logical, or abstract, form the basis of the artist/author's perceptions. 

 Intellectual background information:   Throughout his life, Steve Morris has had books around him.  Although his father spent a career in the military, yet he was constantly reading, mainly history.  Amy, the landlady at Amy's Trailer Park in San Bernardino, gave him The Golden Book of Natural History for his fourth birthday.  When Steve first began reading, he was encouraged to read aloud the highway billboards on the family's trip from California back to Florida for their annual vacation.  Mind you, beside the inane billboards, this was also in the day of the famous "Burma Shave" rhyme signs, so the three day trip was not entirely without entertainment. 

  One of the early sources of intellectual stimulation was a series of Baptist churches.  The Baptist doctrine that all beliefs must be based on (and justified by) the Bible, no matter what other logical justification is used, taught the author early that ideas were based on sources.  Therefore when high school English teachers struggled to get the idea across to their students that they must document where they got their ideas and document justification for the ideas from sources other than themselves, this made perfect sense to Steve.  Further, the value of studying the Bible as a "textbook" lead to a willingness to read other sources of information for what value they could contribute, yet while also examining the values those ideas were based on, not just whether they sounded good by themselves or not. 

  Because both parents were from the "Piney Woods" subculture of the South, there was always an attitude of independence and self-reliance stressed in the author's rearing.  However, with some encouragement from his father and, later, much encouragement from his step-father and his church, Steve always valued education both formal and informal.  In junior college he was particularly encouraged (and challenged) by professors in Western Civilization (Honors), Spanish, English, Comparative Religion, and American History.  In his last two undergraduate years he found both of his major professors (Dr. Page Lee and Dr. James Blevins) to be intellectually challenging in different ways.  It was in a course on contemporary theology that he encountered the influential thought of Paul Tillich and other existentialist theologians and their attempt to convey the Christian message to those nonbelievers whose background was Western but not of the church.  Another particularly challenging professor taught him in a course on the modern history of China.  Throughout his undergraduate and first graduate degree programs, the author always tried to include one "non-major" class in his schedule each term.  This effort at broad generalization has continued to this day.  Some of the more challenging professors in seminary were Dr. Leon Marsh (who provided the means to learn, but left it up to the students whether they did or took a shortcut), Dean Jack Terry (whose Philosophy of Education was one of the most original and enjoyable experiences of education I have ever had), Dr. William L. Hendricks (systematic theologian extraordinaire - even when dealing with the inevitably reactionary elements), and Dr. John Newport (with his wide-ranging knowledge and balanced teaching of the variety of theologies within Christianity.)

  It was also during college days that the author began a habit of reading an hour before bedtime each night.  After resigning a job as Education/Youth Director in a church in Washington, D.C., he returned to school to become a research librarian, eventually evolving into a reference librarian.  During this education, there being no alternative to taking library courses (and usually only one or two classes a semester because he was working full time), Steve began reading both Celtic art manuals and Jungian writings.  Jung's writings picked up on an interest in symbols that goes back into the far past, connecting, perhaps, to an interest in cryptography sparked by the television show, "Man from U.N.C.L.E.," watched at night while in 6th grade.  (The author still creates new ciphers, especially while enduring endless academic meetings--if he does not first find a new direction for his doodles.)  Steve continues to read Carl Jung occassionally, which, like reading Paul Tillich or Mircea Eliade, is slow and challenging, but also very exciting with its revelations and applications.

  The reader should realize that this serious reading is mixed with a lot of fiction.  While in seminary, I had already picked up the habit of reading fiction at night to break the mental cycles (and recycles) which too much study of intellectual expressions can cause.  Any guilt feelings were assauged when Professor Dominic, in a demanding course on the Theology of Paul and John, encouraged his audience to read "escape" fiction of some sort on a regular basis.  While my fiction reading includes many classics and people such as Dorothy Sayers and G.K. Chesterton, my favorite authors of the easy stuff through the years have been (chronologically) Arthur Conan Doyle, Alastair MacLean, Andre Norton (a librarian!), Poul Anderson (especially his "Future History of the Poleosotechnic League" series--with several sub-series within it), C. J. Cherryh (her "Fortress" series was particularly good with its excellent use of symbols and myths, but then so was her initial books on Morgaine, as well as much in between the two series), Patricia Wrede (discovered about the time she appeared to stop writing, unfortunately), Julie Czerneda (who seems a fresh version of Norton and Anderson, admixed), and Terry Pratchett (whose flat Discword is hilarious but hardly fantasy — no, REALLY!)  I have also read "The Sacketts" series by Louis L'Amour during the 2002-2003 year, having picked up one (near the middle of the series, of course) while waiting on car repairs in Asheville.  (Okay, so I did not quite make it to the end in third person — "Them's the breaks, Charlie.")

  For a broader view of the author's reading, at least from a "quotable quotes" standpoint, see: Bookwords.

Steve Morris' Home Page

FIU Library Page

Steve Morris' Compositions TOC

Symbols & Symbolism: Title Page & TOC

Symbols & Symbolism:  Topical Index to Site

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