In 1980 at the age of 22, I moved from Eugene, Oregon to New York City where I lived for the next 15 years. As a visual artist, the shock of leaving what some consider America’s Garden of Eden for such a densely populated city was just what I needed. It felt like I had stepped out of a time machine from the Wild West into a completely human designed future where technology dominated. As if I had gone from a 2D existence where Nature was the primary visual force into a dense, 3D world that seemed to stretch in every direction especially inward. Scale took on a new meaning as everything expanded but also seemed to turn in on itself because of the lack of space.
The effect of this transition transformed my art. I became fascinated by the way technology appeared to imitate nature. Scientific discoveries seemed to start out very rigid and straight lined but then, slowly evolved into more organic designs (bioengineering and Synthetic Biology are taking this concept much farther). I began to see many visual correlations between the micro worlds revealed by textures seen under the microscope and macro textures of the earth as seen from space.
In linking these two very different and yet vitally connected worlds together, I wish to create a visual record of what our technology is actually doing to our planet. My goal is to create visual, tactile sculptures that physically show the negative and positive effects of humans on this planet to foster greater understanding but most of all, change.
Artist Statement
I am interested in the interior and exterior, the structures and textures that define minute living things. This subject matter interests me because I am fascinated by the intricate and efficiently formed micro-worlds that surround us and yet are nearly invisible to the naked eye.
In my work I explore this subject matter by adopting images from nature and molecular biology and then recombining them into newly imagined bio-organisms. I use computer programs to combine different images and then create photo masks that I use to reductively sand carve those two dimensional images into bas relief, three dimensional sculptures.
My work is characterized by organic webs of cell textures that are deeply incised into glass: intricately laced insect wing structures that seamlessly cover smooth planes of silvery glass, abstracted organic shapes with Scalloped edges, layered glass sculptures with interior illumination that softly changes hue.
In the future I want to explore this subject matter further, particularly as it relates to the way living organisms use light at the cellular level for growth and change.
Biography
Lawrence Morrell was born in Portland Oregon in 1958. He showed a strong, early affinity for art and music and was encouraged by his parents, who were both musicians. His earliest sculptural interests were in clay and he created large, wheel thrown sculptures during his high school years. In 1976 he began studying art at the University of Oregon where he created bas relief and cast clay sculptures that foreshadowed his later work in glass.
In 1980 he moved to New York City and began sculpting primarily with glass. He collaborated with other artists creating the etched glass windows for the landmark Delmonico’s Restaurant and for the White Horse Tavern in lower Manhattan. In 1984 he collaborated with others to create the New York Vietnam Veterans War Memorial carved in illuminated glass. He was interviewed on National Public Television on The McNeil Lehrer News Hour about the experience.
After the Memorial commission, Morrell started his own art studio in New York creating
sculptures for Cartier, Morgan Stanley, Chase Manhattan, Petrossian’s Caviar and a two story glass sculpture for the facade of the Millennium Hotel at Times Square. With these experiences, he was invited to exhibit his abstract glass sculptures in several New York galleries. In 1995 he moved to the vibrant West Coast art glass community in Portland, Oregon and began to use his artwork to explore the way light is transmitted through glass. In 2000, inspired by the lush, botanical diversity of Oregon, he created a glowing carved glass staircase. The transparent steps were hollowed out with a pine tree branch and needle motif and filled with thousands of illuminated fiber-optic strands that softly undulate with color.
On the West Coast he has been commissioned by VISA International, The Port of Portland and The Portland Center for the Performing Arts, where he created “The Elements of Matter” in 2001. This horizontal, 30 foot long interactive illuminated glass sculpture is carved with spiral motifs inspired by research images from the CERN Large Hadron Collider where atoms were smashed at near light speeds to reveal new atomic particles and a completely new interpretation of the physical world.
Currently, Morrell’s artistic focus has been on sculptures in carved glass and steel using active illumination. He is fascinated by the new science of synthetic biology and creates work that references the way scientists are deconstructing biological organisms and reassembling them into new and synthetic life forms. In his latest body of work entitled “Bioengineered Organisms”, Morrell takes apart intricate images from biological research and the molecular world and reassembles them into his vision of newly created organisms. He then carves these two dimensional drawings into three dimensions in layers of heat worked glass. Morrell’s sculptures explores the intersection between society’s need to protect the natural world and the scientist’s desire to usefully modify it, thereby enabling us to survive and prosper despite the cataclysmic effects of our species on this planet.
Morrell has exhibited and taught around the world including exhibiting at the United States Embassy in Doha, Qatar as a part of the Art in Embassies program and teaching art in Switzerland and New Zealand. His sculptures and art installations are collected nationally and internationally.
Selected Public Commissions:
Portland Center for the Performing Arts, 30’ Illuminated glass sculpture Portland Oregon
Port of Portland, Glass & steel Focus Wall, Corporate Lobby, Portland, Oregon
Millennium at Times Square Hotel, 2 story high glass facade, NYC
New York Vietnam Veteran’s War Memorial, Carved glass block wall with illumination, NY
Selected Corporate Collections:
Military readiness 1% for art installation
Molalla Communications, OR
Moberg Fireplaces Inc., OR
VISA International, CA
Cartier, NYC
Cartier, Rodeo Dr. CA
Millenium Hotel at Times Square, NYC
Petrossians Caviar, NYC
Gensler & Associates, NYC
Gannett Publishing, NYC
Morgan Stanley Bank, NYC
The Dakota Bldg, NYC
Saks Fifth Avenue, NYC
Bibliography:
New Technologies in Glass, Vanessa Cutler, UK 2012
Best of America Glass Artists Vol. III, 2012
Willamette Week, Richard Speer, “WW Pick” January, 2010
Street of Dreams Magazine, June 2009
Southern Living Magazine 2007
The Oregonian, Margie Boulé “Gentleness of Nature, Violence of the Universe Collide in
Bar Design” December 2004
The Oregonian, Cathy Lamb, “Taking a shine to a circular staircase” December 2000
Elle Decor, 1990
Vanity Fair, 1989
The McNeil/Lehrer News Hour, PBS Interview 1984
Phillip Morris Magazine, Interview 1984
Glass Digest, Cover 1985
The New York Daily News, Interview 1984