Aphrodite's Dream

Thomas Morrison was born March 8, 1962 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and moved with his family to Mississippi and in 1968. He graduated with a film degree, and with a minor in both art and theater for the University of Southern Mississippi in 1986. From there Thomas was awarded a fellowship at the prestigious Penland School of Craft, in North Carolina, which marked the beginning of his clay career. After Penland, Thomas taught classes at the Craft Center in Northridge California, for Northridge University. This led to a Masters program in Fine ArtAbby Otis Parsons school of Art and design in Los Angeles, where he received his MFA in 1992. Upon his return to Mississippi, Thomas focused his efforts on his artwork and teaching. Through the years he has taught children's classes middle school, high school, junior-college, and college level courses. After teaching for the Millsaps College art department for five years, he is now working full time at his studio this entails producing his artwork, teaching the Millsaps adult enrichment program, and teaching his own private studio classes. Thomas's work focuses on figurative organic forms and their relationship to the structure of landscapes. This relationship is one of powerful images he says. The overlapping and interplay of these organic and geometric shapes create an inspirational format. Thomas feels that what is less defined enables him, as an artist, to spark the imagination of the viewer. Enticing the viewer to participate if you will. He says, the mystery created by what is less defined as a natural luer, forcing the onlooker to search for more shapes, other meanings, and endless interpretations. In this context, the visual becomes a moving, changing, living thing