Orange you Glad
2021
Rachel Morrissey
Acrylic paint and coloured pencil on paper
45.7 x 61 cm
Unframed
(Ships from the US)
Financing available (more)
1 Item
2021
Rachel Morrissey
Acrylic paint and coloured pencil on paper
45.7 x 61 cm
Unframed
(Ships from the US)
Artwork description
Rachel Morrissey’s narrative painting gives form to an invisible struggle with her own mental health, motherhood, fertility, pregnancy, and daily life. While the green plants become a romantic association of motherhood and fruitfulness, the orange vines represent the tension of her ongoing battle with anxiety. Through the power of complementary colours, she establishes a sense of conflict, which has not yet been resolved. Nevertheless, it also demonstrates her robust willingness to persist and fight. The title ‘Orange you Glad’ might show that only by overcoming obstacles can we truly appreciate our triumphs in life.
Rachel Morrisey
Rachel Morrissey was born in the late 80s in Dorchester, Massachusetts and grew up in the Connecticut suburbs. Morrissey received her MFA in May 2016 from Massachusetts College of Art and Design. She earned a Post-Baccalaureate degree from The School of the Museum of Fine Arts in 2014 and a BFA in Studio Art from Indiana University in 2009. She is a mother of two young children. Morrissey currently lives and works in her home studio in Medfield, Massachusetts.
Artist statement:
Rachel Morrissey’s newest group of narrative paintings give form and context to an invisible struggle with mental health, motherhood, fertility, pregnancy and daily life. Her paintings contain reoccurring imagery of unknowable strange plants as romantic associations for motherhood and fruitfulness, while weeds and vines represent the tension of her ongoing battle with anxiety. This playful balance of colorful imagery evokes seductive properties one moment and strangling vulnerability in the next. The human form is clearly not depicted but its presence is noted through motifs of the body. Morrissey creates these paintings through the lens and history of botanical art with a nod to childhood bedtime stories. She hopes to seduce the viewer into this seemingly colorful, jubilant world, leading them to understand that all is not what it is seen above the surface. The motifs and patterns oscillate along the continuum of her experience as a mother finding exuberance, love and joy at one end and utter despair at the other. Morrissey’s work continues to ‘bear fruit’ as she chronicles and interprets the usual and unusual curveballs of life and motherhood through art and imagery. She hopes others will see themselves in her fanciful imaginings.
Selected Exhibitions:
2022- Upcoming, Superfine Fair, New York City, March, 2022
2021- Forbidden Fruit, I Like Your Work Podcast, Piano Craft Gallery, September 2021
2021- Bosscritt Daily January, Virtual Exhibition, Winter/Spring 2021
2021 - Las Laguna Art Gallery, Small Works Big Talent 1/8-1/30/2021
2020 - Every Day In August, Virtual Exhibition, Bosscritt Curitorial Club, Fall 2020
2020 - Congruence, I Like Your Work Podcast, Juried By Bridget Mayer Gallery, Summer 2020 2020 - Superfine E-fair, Summer 2020, New York, NY
2019 - 29th Annual MassArt Auction, Bakalar & Paine Galleries, Boston, MA
