 Catherine Jo Morgan
I
make art to give people energy. It's the kind of energy you
feel when you're in love, or doing something you love so that time means
nothing. I get this kind of energy from the woods around my studio, and it flows
into the paintings and sculptures I make. This psychic energy stays available
in the artwork.
 I specialize in Vessel of Energy™ sculptures. Each one
includes at least one bowl or vessel form. It's like making bowls of energy.
This is because vessels are the most powerful form for holding energy and giving
it when needed. I know it's working when I glance out the window and the woods seem to light up.
Everything glows. Or I look at a Vessel of Energy™ and it encourages me, takes
me deeper into being myself.
 I use basic, down to earth materials like iron and paper. I can feel the life in these materials
so I want to help them show it. In a deeper sense, my material is the very energy of aliveness. I find
this energy both in wild places as I walk in the woods, and deep in my own being
as I form the paper and iron. I add whatever else the bowl wants – coloring, candle, vase, gemstone sphere, beads, soft dried grass, metallic threads – anything it asks for.
Trained as an artist-blacksmith, I venture beyond my training
when I forge and weld openwork
iron vessels. The open spaces let energy flow freely and
make lights dance in the bowl's shadow. These sculptures are meant to assist you
in creating the life you want - following your true path, from the inside.
 My
paper vessels include soft paper Chi Energy™ medicine bags,
to hold psychic energy you can carry with you. Some of them fold to be worn as
pendants. I form larger paper vessels as well, molding
oriental paper with acrylic medium in a durable, archival paper mache. With
these I can go wild with color.
I love both iron and paper, And I love the tension between their
qualities. Strong, resistant iron looks so dead at first: just dull gray bars, "dead as a doornail." Yet
hidden inside, iron is really a dance of electrons. If I can show at least some
of this life in the iron, might it shock us more alive ourselves?
Soft paper is fragile, vulnerable. Yet it can have amazing durability.
I love paper too for its connection with the plants and trees I've loved since
childhood. Paper suggests possibility, invitation, the call to create.
My new
"Energy Transformer" sculptures harmonize these opposing energies of paper and iron. I’ve wanted to do this for many years – to bring my two loves together.
It's like making peace between parents who loved each other, yet couldn't
resolve their terrible differences. It’s like bringing the two extremes of
myself into one person. Inner conflicts become sources of creative energy.
The "Energy Transformer" series led me to explore
painting on
flat surfaces. I play with color, often printing with leaves from my favorite
trees. These first paintings seem to be about nourishing and healing the heart.
All my artworks are meant to be true friends of the soul.
They're blessings for your journey in life. May your life glow - and may you
know it.
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More about Catherine Jo Morgan:
Press Release
Artist Information Sheet
Artist Statement
Bio
One Page Resume
Full Resume
Testimonials - Iron Morgan Bowls
Chronology
The Studio - Ecstasy Forge
Early Journal on Process
Weblog: Hand Forged Vessels, an online artist journal
eBay "About Me"
page
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