‘Hope Survives’ For One Artist And An Entire Nation

By Shannon Hicks

For the second time in his life, the artist Michael Morshuk has been inspired by something that is affecting so many people he felt compelled to paint something as a result. After the terrorist attacks of September 11, the Newtown resident needed to put something onto canvas that summed up what he and thousands of others continue to feel.

The result is “Hope Survives,” a fantastic 20- by 23-inch painting Mr Morshuk completed last week, representing nine days’ work. The painting shows Newtown’s flagpole with its flag at half-staff. In the lower left foreground of the work the cupola, steeple, and historic rooster weathervane of Newtown Meeting House can be seen above a ridge of trees, and a collection of clouds float by in the background.

The colors are strong yet luminous and the image is something that immediately pulls at any passerby. The American flag in the painting is being tugged at by a breeze, as soft waves of the cloth and shadows in the blue field attest to. The rope holding the flag to the pole is also pulled somewhat taut, as the pole holds onto the sacred symbol of a united country against a force that would, if left unchecked, pull the flag from its protector.

Mr Morshuk remembered driving up Church Hill Road a few days after last month’s terrorist attacks and seeing the Newtown flag lowered.

“I knew something was forming in my head that would eventually come out as a painting, but hadn’t figured out yet what it would be,” he said. “Then I was driving up Route 6 and saw the flag and inspiration struck. I remember thinking ‘That’s it!’”

The painting conveys sadness in that our country’s flag has been lowered, but Mr Morshuk has at the same time created a scene with a hint of hope for the future in that the sun, although unseen, is rising. The colors of the painting suggest the brightening hues of a new day, not the darkening shadows of something ending.

The flag and building are quickly identifiable to anyone who has ever lived in or near Newtown, but the image is one that can be identified with by any American. It is, as the painting’s title implies, a declaration of hope.

“The morning will come, the sun will shine, and hope prevails,” Mr Morshuk recently said of his latest work. “That’s the key to all of this: hope.”

After working with a number of sketches and drawings of the immediate area at the top of Church Hill Road, Mr Morshuk was able to complete his new work. His use of photographs and sketches paid off in the intricate detail that is seen in the steeple of the meeting house, a former church building.

“I wanted to know exactly how many clapboards there were up there,” he said, but his persistence paid off.

The key to the painting, he says, was the lighting. In order to create the look of the sun bouncing off the white stripes of the flag, Mr Morshuk used a “building-up process,” he called it, to keep the stripes as white as possible. He painted around the flag’s white areas, adding white to the flag only as the final step. As a result, the white areas of the church, appear to be nearly gray.

The original painting is being exhibited at The Grey Horse Gallery in Sandy Hook. Gallery owner Daryl Ifkovic has created a custom frame for “Hope Survives,” choosing what she calls a traditional style. The wood-based frame is a blend of silver and gold, with beading on the inside lip and a warm dusky brown line on the frame itself.

“The line,” Ms Ifkovic explained Wednesday afternoon, “enhances the artwork and draws the eye into the scene without distracting from the painting.” Between the painting’s edge is a 100 percent rag mat in a mist color. The image itself measures 20 by 23 inches. The matting brings the artwork’s measurement up to 26 by 29 inches, and the frame pulls the piece up to a final measurement of 30 by 33 inches.

The painting has been covered by UV concentration clear glass, so there is no chance of it ever fading from sunlight, and the print has been mylar hinged on rag board, which means it has been preserved with museum quality standards. No acid materials are touching “Hope Survives,” so it should, like its sentiment, last forever.

In addition to the original painting, Mr Morshuk has been working feverishly to have the image converted into prints. The price tag for the original “Hope Survives” is $1,200; by having prints made, more people will be able to share Mr Morshuk’s inspirational view. Sixteen- by 20-inch prints are being done on archival watercolor paper, each available for $85.

“He’s quite a good artist,” Ms Ifkovic said this week, who met Mr Morshuk recently when one of her clients visited the Sandy Hook art gallery and framing shop to have a frame made for the dog portrait she had commissioned Mr Morshuk.

There are plans in the works for a meet-the-artist and print signing session with Mr Morshuk at Grey Horse in early November. In the meantime, orders can be made through the gallery, which is at 3 Washington Avenue (Route 34) in Sandy Hook, for copies of the prints.

Mr Morshuk wanted to use his talent to not only express what he has been feeling but also to help what has become a monumental national effort of relief. As a result, he will be donating a portion of each sale of an unframed print as well as part of the sale of the original painting to one of the September 11 support funds. Additionally, Grey Horse will be donating a portion of each sale of a framed print to the relief efforts.

A Career For The Dogs

Michael Morshuk works out of a studio in his home on Mile Hill South in Newtown, where he and his wife Robbin live along with their elementary school-age daughter Kelsea. The studio has come to be affectionately dubbed “The Doghouse.”

He received his bachelor of fine arts degree in 1985 from the School of Visual Arts in New York City (having won the art scholarship award from Hackensack (N.J) High School). After school he worked for a design company for seven years, then began with freelance illustration during the early to mid-1990s. His works appeared in Connecticut magazine, Fairfield County Weekly, Hudson Valley magazine and The Atlantic Monthly, among others.

His earliest interest in drawing came during his grammar school years, after he discovered the artwork of Andrew Wyeth. Mr Morshuk’s love of the dog paintings by the great American painter, as well as those by Wyeth’s equally celebrated son James, ultimately led to Mr Morshuk’s decision to focus his own painting talent on animals, specifically dogs.

“There was this moment in the Catskills a few years ago,” Mr Morshuk recalled, “when this pit bull turned his head and caught the sunlight just right, and that was it. I knew I wanted to capture that.”

The painting that resulted from that moment, done in 1999, is a 7¾- by 14½-inch mixed media on paper called “Behind the Pines.” That work won the artist the Society of Creative Arts of Newtown (SCAN) Best in Show/Mixed Media Award in 1999.

The last few years have been dedicated to marketing Mr Morshuk’s portraits and prints. He works on commission and also creates images anyone can enjoy – images of not necessarily someone’s dog, but pictures from a canine’s point of view or paintings that happen to include a dog. His works also include images that have nothing to do with dogs.

The first time Mr Morshuk was prompted to do something in response to a tragedy was after the plane crash in July 1999 that took the life of John F. Kennedy, Jr, his wife, and his sister-in-law. “Sea Memory (for JFK Jr)” is another mixed media Morshuk work, this one done on clayboard. The 2001 image measures just 4 by 19 inches. It is a seascape, a view of a choppy sea under a bleak sky, with no land in sight. The one breaking wave in the scene, Mr Morshuk says, has come to symbolize JFK Jr’s passing spirit.

Another of Mr Morshuk’s most recent works is a 5- by 13-inch watercolor and acrylic on board called “Approaching Monhegan.” The viewpoint of the painting, according to the artist’s notes, was his own while onboard the ferry The Laura B, as he was indeed approaching the island off the Maine coast named in the painting’s title.

“It had been pelting rain and chilled winds for most of the boat ride when suddenly the storm broke and the fog began to dissipate,” Mr Morshuk’s noted. “Manana Island began to reveal itself in all her beautiful form. As we approached Monhegan Harbor, my dog became captivated by the activity on the nearby island.

“Suddenly, the sun broke out and lit her as she sat at the front of the boat. I got very excited and quickly did some sketches, notes, and photos thinking that it could be something…,” he continued. Mr Morshuk won his second SCAN Award when he entered that painting into the SCAN Spring Show last May.

In a wonderful quirk of fate, one of the men who inspired the young Mr Morshuk now has one of the Newtown artist’s originals in his personal collection. James Wyeth purchased “Approaching Monhegan” this summer.

(Examples of Michael Morshuk’s work can be viewed at his website, www.modogart.com. It is also featured at www.muttart.com. Mr Morshuk can be reached directly by calling 426-3742 or by sending email to mikemo1@earthlink.net.)