Photo courtesy U.S. Mint
Memphis portrait artist Frank Morris designs coin to honor Revolutionary War hero George Rogers Clark.
When Frank Morris, born and raised in Memphis, was in the first grade, his teacher told him, "You’re going to be an artist."
The idea stuck, and he became determined to make it happen. One of his latest works is for the U.S. Mint. He designed a quarter in honor of the George Rogers Clark Historic National Park in Indiana.
Morris went to the UofM and several design schools all over. But it was a visit to the Brooks that put him on this path. The museum was showing an exhibition of Time magazine covers. That’s when he decided to become an illustrator. In fact, one of his illustrations landed on the first cover of Memphis magazine under celebrated art director Fred Woodward.
After studying to become an illustrator, he did work for Newsweek and New York Magazine. He says it was the arrogance of youth, to call (from a payphone!) and offer up his services to such well-known magazines.
He also illustrated Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew books and designed the logo for Playhouse on the Square.
Morris designed this quarter in honor of war hero George Rogers Clark.
Such illustration gigs were killed by the advent of the computer. That’s when Morris began pursuing portrait painting. He studied at the NY Academy of Art and through the Arts Student League. He went to hospitals and watched a dissection to figure out how bodies worked — bone by bone, muscle by muscle.
One of his most high-profile subjects is former mayor Dick Hackett. He has several portraits of judges hanging in the courthouse.
The mint gig came about through an open call for artists. Morris says it’s a pretty strict and rigorous gig. One must do tons of research to get the clothes and apparatus correct. He says such jobs combine his favorite things — history and art. He’s done a number of coins, including three First Lady coins. He’s currently working on one for NASA. His initials grace one side of the coin. The initials of the engraver or sculptor grace the other.
Morris says his favorite portrait he’s ever done is of his father, also a painter. He says the goal is to capture the subject on his very best day. With his dad, a gregarious man, he captured a moment of solitude.
He wrote of the painting and of the man:
"Impish. Creative. Intelligent. Playful. Good-hearted. Complicated. Both his parents died when he was a boy. So he lived in an orphanage for several years, but ran away and learned about the world on the streets of Chicago. The lawyers got all his family money. And he was shipped down to Memphis to live with his uncle in an unfinished, and unheated attic, with only the clothes on his back. In spite of that, he grew up to be good-natured and loving Dad. He always made me feel loved and always nurtured my creative side. His nickname for me was 'Rembrandt.' This painting shows him in that quiet moment of solitude that all artists need in their studios. There was usually a tiny A.M. radio playing opera somewhere nearby."
"Portrait of my Father" by Frank K. Morris
