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Walking A Path That Few Have Trod

The Art And Magic Of James Anthony Morris

photo provided Moved by nature, earth and creativity, Vermont artist makes one of a kind pieces that truly are Wizard Made.

photo provided Carved of pipe stone, inlaid with gems all hand mined from the earth, Mama Lizard is one of Vermont artist James Morris's most acclaimed pieces.

photo provided When does a walking stick become a staff and a piece of work? When it meets the hands of Vermont artist James Morris.

Tuesday March 20, 2012

By Cookie Steponaitis

         When author J.R.R. Tolkien made the comment that. “…not all those who wander are lost,” he must have had Vermont artist James Anthony Morris in mind. When asked to share when he began his career as an artist, Morris simply smiled and responded, “Always was.” Morris was born in Massachusetts and began carving intricate clay and soapstone works when he was eight, drawing when he was nine and doing serious oil painting when he was ten. He was selling his work at a professional level when he was seventeen and was already earning recognition from the artistic community and gaining notoriety for the uniqueness of his work.

         Spending part of his life as a master furniture maker, the skills he learned from working with wood have blended into the work of a man who is moved by spontaneity and the piece before him. In a career where mastery is regulated by monetary success, Morris began at a young age to show that his definitions of art and skill would come from other venues. While mining gold in the American west, Morris encountered a Native American who not only commented on his work but showed him the red Pipestone that was sacred to his people. Mining it from the ground and then spending fourteen hours a day working at carving a piece, Morris began a journey that would take him on to win 67 Master Carving competitions and a piece that has come to be known as one of his signature works. Mama Lizard and Baby was carved in 1997 out of Pipestone and is inlaid with 240 pieces of gold that Morris’s dug from the earth with his own hands.  The piece has been featured in several national magazines and shown at galleries around the world. While listening to the artist explain the process, one quickly learns that for Morris nature and God are the master carvers and what he does is to create his own type of magic reflecting nature, spirituality and the experience of turning stone, wood and precious gems into works of art.

            “When you are a carver and working in one stone,” shared Morris, “it brings you to another. I have taught people mining, carving and classes for twenty-five years, but what happens for the best is when something is spontaneous and not planned. Then the Universe and the guidance of nature are the driving force and not the lens of man’s intellect. It is a synergy between his hands, his mind and his spirituality. At the end of that process you step back and stand in awe of your own creation and say, ‘Oh, did I really make that?’ It is a blending of nature, art and a little bit of magic.” While Morris has had many careers within his own career, he believes they are all building blocks for the work he is producing now.

            At present Morris is working to create a book for people to use as a guide for crafting their own walking staffs, wands and canes that are each in themselves a piece of art and a reflection of the individual. The observer, upon closely seeing the walking staffs experiences the feelings of awe, wonder and admiration. With staffs ranging in cost from $100.00 - $4,500.00, Morris’s pieces are unique and all share a process of creation that began with him laying his hands on a piece of wood, mining or selecting gemstones or natural stones like Vermont Forest Black soapstone, rocks from Lewis Creek, coral, silver, brass, steel, copper, turquoise, garnet, sapphire or laying bare the inner intricacies of the wood to turn bumps, burls and nobs into intricate faces of wizards, creatures or patterns of striated color. Messages engraved in Latin, expressing the theme or feeling behind the piece also add to the wonderment

            Lining the wall of family acquaintance Rod and Joan Case’s home,  is the staff collection that will be displayed during an Open House on April 7- and 8th and again on April 14th and 15th from 10:00 a.m.- 4:00 p.m. Each piece stops the viewers in their tracks and draws them into a world where magic still rules and the balance between art, nature, spirituality and creativity appear seamless. Morris patiently explained many of the pieces, but this reporter was particularly drawn to a piece simply called the Halloween Staff.  What began as a piece of wood found in his backyard in North Ferrisburgh evolved into an intricate carving with nodules becoming faces, nobs becoming animals and over 100 inlays of gems creating a work that as it turns or catches the light draws you closer into it. The staff reflects all of Morris’s skills as a master furniture maker, geologist and artist. Jokingly telling him it appeared wizard made, Morris grinned and said that was his feeling as well. “In history,” Morris remarked, “the term wizard actually was defined as one that seeks to be in service to man. Today’s terminologies and multilayered definitions have hidden the true meaning. The purpose of art is simply to mix art and science to cause change to occur in conformity with one’s own will. In many of the pieces the art is already there, waiting just under the surface to be freed. The process of spontaneously working on it brings out the best in the wood, the stone, the gems and the artist.”

            While Morris admits he has been off the grid for several years living in a log home on the top of a small mountain in Monkton, he has never stopped working, teaching and putting himself into all of his work. For him, Wizard Made is not a catch phrase from the current popular culture obsession with magic, wizards and duels, but a statement of the process that allows him to blend all of his master skills into unique expressions of the processes of nature, art, magic and creation itself. The upcoming book A Wizard’s Guide is part of the programs Morris will be offering to the public. In addition to selling his staffs, wands and canes, he will again be teaching prospecting for gold, carving stone, classes in magic, and taking on students in oils, drawing and carving. Visitors to the Vermont Soap Factory on Exchange Street in Middlebury will be treated to one of his latest projects The Angel, created out of soap that not only draws the viewer in but showcases the textures, colors and feel of the Vermont made soap. Morris invites all the Valley Voice readers to the Open Houses on April 7and 8th and April 14thand15th from 10:00-4:00 at the home of friends Rod and Joan Case at 388 Ethan Allen Highway and to see for themselves what he has created.

            Whether it is stone, wood, gemstones, silver, brass, steel, copper or even simply wire, this Valley Voice reporter did not want to leave the enchanted world of the art of James Anthony Morris. While he calls the process “concentrated effort in form,” this reporter thinks the best analogy is simply “Wizard Made.” Come and experience the intriguing and spellbinding world of the art of James Anthony Morris. You will not be disappointed.

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