Art and Redemption

From Feb. 5 to March 25, the community has an opportunity to see art at the UU Gallery that is not usually featured in Door County. DarRen Morris is a self-taught artist who has been in prison since 1994, when he was 17. Painting in acrylic on cardboard, along with Rastafarian religion, served as a lifeline for him. He has created a compelling body of work from his prison experience.

Morris’s art is figurative and ranges from still-life to portraits, classic nudes to visions, muted studies of stagnation to bright images of crowds in motion. Although he often uses inmates as models (identified by their number), he also paints portraits of others. One of these subjects is Judith Gwinn Adrian, the woman who has documented their extraordinary friendship in the book, In Warm Blood. For more about Morris’s art, visit darrenmorrisart.com.

The show is co-sponsored by the UU Racial Justice Action Team and Write On, Door County. During the exhibition, Write On will conduct an Art/Speaks program March 8, 1:30 – 2:30 pm. Participants will write in response to one of DarRen’s paintings. With participant permission, poems and other writings will be sent to DarRen, who is currently serving a life sentence in a Wisconsin maximum security prison. For more information on further events, visit writeondoorcounty.org/event/darren-morris-art-and-redemption-exhibition.

The UU Gallery is free and open to the public. It is located at 10341 Hwy 42 in north Ephraim. For more information call 920.854.7559.