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| | | | "Grand Portage students' work to be shown in St. Paul" by Joan Farnam Grand Portage students' work to be shown in St. Paul Cook County News-Herald Last Updated: Thursday, October 05th, 2006 11:50:28 AM Joan Farnam Feature editor Students at Grand Portage Elementary School will be honored in St. Paul next week when their artwork, inspired by the paintings and drawings the late George Morrison, a Grand Portage tribal member, will go on exhibit at the Minnesota Museum of American Art. The work, which will be installed in a special room next to a large exhibit of Morrison’s art, will be part of the George Morrison Family Art Day at the museum, where families can come in and see Morrison’s paintings and then try to do some of their own. The children are absolutely thrilled, said Lorelei Livingston, who teaches second and third graders at the elementary school. She said she decided to focus on George Morrison as a painter and a tribal member for a special unit in the class this fall andin the process, brought in Hazel Belvo, Morrison’s former wife and a well-known painter in her own right, and his son, Briand, a jazz musician, to talk about the painter and his life. The students learned about Morrison’s horizon paintings and rock cut line drawings and studied his work in books and on the Internet. They were even invited to the Johnson Heritage Post to see the Morrison collection there. Then, the students set to work, painting and drawing while they listened to Morrison’s favorite music — jazz and classical — using the principles they learned in class. The result is quite wonderful. Morrison had rules about creating his horizon paintings, for example, and the students followed these exactly. The paintings have the air of “a Morrison.” So do the line drawings the children produced. And now, they’ll be on display at a big museum in St. Paul and inspire families to try their hand at the Morrison style. None of this would have been possible if Livingston hadn’t called the museum earlier this fall to ask permission to use its George Morrison Web site as part of her lesson plans for studying the internationally acclaimed artist. The museum staff readily said “Yes!” and sent three books of Morrison’s work — and asked if the children’s work could go on display — a great honor. The George Morrison Family Art Day is from 1-4 p.m. Oct. 8 and the public is invited. | |||||
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