Dreamlike spell: Artist's paintings are 'mysteries for the viewer to solve'

Years after circus king John Ringling died, his glorious Sarasota palace was abandoned to fast-growing foliage, vines and thickly blooming brambles. Like Sleeping Beauty's castle, it slumbered untouched by thieves until it was reopened, rehabbed and given a new life as a respected art school and museum.

Looking at artist Morris Mitchell's dreamlike collage paintings, it seems natural that he would have spent 40 years in that enchanted kingdom surrounded by gold and sapphire ceilings, ruby carpets, snowy marble and jewel-toned crystal windows. Mitchell taught Ringling Art and Design school students how to collage, advanced painting and conceptual drawing. But he also became a talented artist in a wide range of styles from photo realism to abstract expressionism. He has retired to a home in Hixson but, at age 80, he's still painting.

Among Morris Mitchell's works "Plan It Red."

His collage paintings use vibrant color and bits of what look like fishing nets, rope, flowers, tapestry and shattered crystal swirled into the painting for a 3-D effect. Sometimes, he rakes through the paint or makes prints in it so the art looks a bit like clues in a crime scene.

"That's right! They are mysteries for the viewer to solve," Mitchell says.

Visitors can fall under his spell when his work is shown in Dalton, Ga., at Michael Thacker's gallery on March 6. A reception for the exhibit starts at 6 p.m. that night.

"These portraits Mo painted use color and light in similar ways to Rembrandt," Thacker says, holding up a painting as an example. "But I think now his paintings are reflecting inner emotion and how he feels about the world now. I think the new work is the artist's genuine voice."

"It Came from the Sea"

Mitchell's paintings use line and color to dramatize an effort to maintain some order against a wave of chaos. One painting even shows a blue sky speckled with cloud wisps with thick, orderly black lines drawn across it like drafting paper. In one corner, a scary tsunami of dark sea is spilling out of its box and swelling toward the sky.

The largest painting in the exhibit feels like a glimpse of the ocean bottom through a submarine window. The canvas is jet black with glowing, two-dimensional creatures drifting across it, delicate as snowflakes but scary as alien life.

"For me, it's about an individual's journey to find one's purpose or the exploration, the search for what makes life meaningful," Mitchell writes on his website. "I want to tickle the viewer's imagination, spark their intellect so they start asking questions about their own life journeys."

Contact Lynda Edwards at ledwards@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6391.