We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Christina Morrison a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Christina, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

I knew I wanted to be an artist as a very young child. My dad was the practical sort and discouraged me from following my heart where it wanted to go. “It’s great for a hobby!” I remember him telling me. It was not until I met and married my partner who asked with authenticity: “WHY aren’t you doing art as a career?” that I began to follow through on the desire that had been squelched for years. As an adult I realized that being an artist wasn’t just something that I wanted to do, it was who I wanted to be.

A year or so into my artist career, I was working beside a fellow artisan when a teen approached him to tentatively comment, “I’m thinking of becoming an artist” and my artist friend replied, “Don’t do it, unless you can’t help it.” After the boy had walked away, I rounded on my friend: “How could you say that to a kid?” thinking of my own experience and the verbal discouragement that had kept me from exploring my creativity for too long..

He shrugged: “You were one of those who couldn’t help it. You got where you were supposed to be in the end.”

Neither my dad nor my artist friend were inaccurate: choosing to be a creative in our society hasn’t been easy. But following my heart down an artistic pathway has been so worth it, because the intrinsic value to my soul and the opportunity to affect change has been worth facing the challenges along the way.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I am an artist of the West, largely self-taught, and influenced by my surroundings and experiences. I grew up in Northern California, in a tiny cowpoke town, lived for several years in Colorado and I adore the arid dryness and sweeping vistas of the great American West. I like to tell a story with my paintbrush, when possible and history of the different regions also plays a role in my work. But mostly, I hope that my art makes people smile.

On a personal level, when my kids were tiny, I tried to take them to a local art gallery and was turned away at the door because I couldn’t afford the entry fee for myself and three little ones. I realized in that moment that I hated exclusivity. and wanted art to be available for anyone to see it who wanted to.

This is one reason that I began creating murals. Murals are intended for everyone to see and enjoy. They’re intended to enrich everyone’s world without any gate-keeping. I’ve had the opportunity to create murals for municipalities, small businesses and corporations and my work tends to focus on the flora and fauna of a region: placing value on the natural resources that matter to me, and highlighting, if possible, indigenous history within the art.

My desire for non exclusivity is also what drove me to create a free Augmented Reality Art Walking Tour in the town where I lived post pandemic: there was such a need for folks to get out and do things in their local communities and many families were struggling, so the free facet was important to me. Anyone who wanted to see my art and watch it “come alive” with the help of a phone app, could do so, freely. Having done this once, I’m repeating the process in my current town of Mount Shasta, CA because encouraging folks to have an experience with art is something I believe firmly, is enriching for all involved!

I wanted my art to be available everywhere, so I’m showing in galleries in Las Vegas, Colorado and California, and it is publicly available in the mural work that I have done.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

In the Summer of 2020, I was searching for an image to paint in a mural competition and saw a photo of the wild horse named Picasso that nearly took my breath away. An incredible tricolor paint mustang, he was wild with fight, neck arched, mane and tail flying in the wind. Oh, how I wanted to paint this horse. But the photographer, Scott Wilson, received hundreds of requests to use his iconic photograph and often turned them down. I chose to risk and reached out to Scott, espousing the idea of a collaboration. He told me later, the idea out of many, appealed to him. He agreed, I painted Picasso and my mural was chosen as the winning image.

Not only was Picasso, the mustang, memorialized in this way, but I was introduced to the wild horse advocacy community and discovered an epic art friend. At the mural’s completion, I donated a portion of the winnings to a horse advocacy group and the following year, Scott guided me on a trip to experience the wild horses in person. Taking photos and videos of the mustangs in their own wild spaces was an incredible experience and hugely important to my art. That February it was 6 degrees below zero plus a wind chill factor that sent the cold air zinging through me, but the mustangs pranced around in their family groups, blowing steam in our direction, watching us curiously and apparently unconcerned with the cold weather. The sweeping vistas of their wild terrain, the thunder of their hooves and a lone whinny in the wind will forever impact the way I paint the wild horses.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

I’ve had the opportunity to hold a variety of occupational positions (as many artists have) : a project manager, an elementary teacher, a curriculum publisher, and an illustrator. I am practiced in the standard forms of buying and selling in the modern world. But most of those positions drained me at the end of the day and most of those I worked with, felt that same spent feeling. Even if there were moments that were exciting or fulfilling or valuable (there definitely were!), at the end of most days, my soul felt like it needed to be recharged.

The most rewarding aspect of being an artist is that I have the daily opportunity to make something that no one has made before, and while doing so; in attuning to that part of my creativity, I refresh my own spirit and may hopefully, refresh others in the process. What an incredible gift! To be a creative as a way of life is to have chosen to attempt to be closely aligned with one’s soul. To create is an attribute closely connected to the Divine.

When I come away from my work refreshed rather than spent, with something new that has the potential to refresh others, it is a gift that has value beyond what I can express. Additionally, I have the chance to make something that might lighten someone’s day or let them drop their burdens for a moment, and this, too, is a gift beyond price.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.clorenart.com
• Instagram: @clorenart
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cmorrison
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christina-morrison-61226467/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/Glimm3rcat
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-3eIxSkV6hGUedZklauudQ

Image Credits
The image of me painting the mural, with the cameraman is by Scott Wilson. All others are taken by Daniel Morrison.