LINDA MORRELL

"Passagiatta"

photographs and photo encaustic monoprints

ARTIST STATEMENT

The Italians have a wonderful tradition called the passagiatta, which is a leisurely evening stroll through the town’s park or the main street.   It seems just about everyone, in any given town or city participates young and old alike.  It becomes a nice way to unwind after a busy day and for Italians, it is also an opportunity to see and be seen.

I chose Passagiatta as the title of this group of work for two reasons. I love the sound of the word and in many ways it describes my experience of Italy.  I traveled there to see and to experience a land and culture that is an intricate part of who I am and what I do.  As an artist I was saturated with inspiration.  As an Italian America, I experience a sensation of Déjà vu and an unusual level comfort among people whose language and culture sifted down through my grandparents.

The photographs in this exhibition are my personal response to an Italian experience. They  represent a view into a cultural landscape rich with religious icons and the coexistence of profound ancient ancestry with a modern society. In this context sacred is juxtapose to profane and vernacular forms contrast with traditional iconography.  A Madonna is adorned with neon and religious portraits are for sale at an antique market.  The artifacts and sculpture, whose physicality acted as a bridge to the past, became for me animated witnesses : the Gatekeepers. While the characteristics of the architecture and the layers of civilization that appeared in even a simple passageway became  distinctive to my American sensibilities.

In all of my photographic imagery I seek to enhance the tactile sense of light and emphasize the importance of subject’s color or tone in our awareness of its surface.  The prints are archival pigment prints  made on an Epson Printer.  Several of the pieces are photo-encaustic monoprints.

ARTIST   BIOGRAPHY

Artist, Linda Morrell, a native of Albany, New York has worked in photography for the past twenty-five years. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Rhode Island School of Design studying with noted photographer Harry Callahan.  She received her Master of Fine Arts degree from George Washington University.  She lived in the Washington. D.C. area from 1978 to 1984 and taught at many area schools including George Washington University, American University, Trinity College and  the Smithsonian Institution.

In the Spring of 2007, she was Visiting Professor of Photography for the University of Georgia Studies Abroad Program in Cortona, Italy.   Since 1985 she has been an Associate Professor and Program Coordinator for Photography at the Sage College of Albany.  From 1987 until 1989 she also served as Chairperson of the Visual Arts Department.

February of 1983 marked Linda Morrell’s first solo exhibit at Studio Gallery in Washington, D.C.  Since then there have been solo exhibits at the Rensselaerville Institute in Rensselaerville, N.Y; the Rathbone Gallery in Albany, N.Y; Georgetown University Art Gallery, Washington, D.C; Charles County Community College, MD.   Her work has been in numerous group exhibitions including those at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Museum of Art, Utica, N.Y; The Fulton Street Gallery, Troy, N.Y; Runnels Gallery, Portales, N.M; The Lynchburg Fine Art Center, Lynchburg, VA.;  The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C; The Virginia Museum, Richmond, VA.; Ohio University  and The University of Georgia. Her work is represented in private and public collections such as the Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, N.Y. and the George Washington University, Washington, D.C.