Jelene Morris:

world of childlike characters

Hello. My name is Jelene Morris and I am a professional artist from Columbia, SC, currently living in Kansas City, Missouri. I remember the first time I wanted to become an artist when I grew up, was at my 5 year old birthday party, with Mr. Knozit on tv. Mr. Knozit went around and asked the children what they wanted to be when they grew up, I wanted to say that I wanted to be an artist, but I was embarassed, so I said I wanted to be Wonder Woman instead. Having the thought of becoming an artist though, only made me want to draw all the time. I was fascinated with Snoopy and Garfield in the 80's. Trying to draw them.. other characters as well.

In high school, I got art honors when I graduated, and got to wear the rainbow tassle on my gown. In college, I majored in studio art, against the will of my parents, who wanted me to become a teacher. I went to grad school for a bit, but got tired of school, and didn't finish... I started doing my own art thing, creating art on my own and showing it at the Morris Gallery in my town and selling it to different people. I soon discoved the world of the internet, and started my own business with jelene.com in 1998.

My work is based on the world of childlike characters and a lot of bright colors. Almost too much color. My Tickles the goldfish character is usually in my work. I used to have a real fish named Tickles, which inspired me. His girlfriend, Baby Dumpling is also involved in the paintings. I started a small series of work which I called "minipops" and have other paintings such as the nightmare series, which is more abstracted. I take some varieties of my dreams and twist them into a silly story and make the nightmare paintings. The minipops are just simple forms of my ideas brought to life on a small canvas.

I've worked in all sorts of art mediums, from throwing clay to making sculptures out of wood.. but right now my focus is on painting. I paint mostly on handmade canvases, and on thick varieties of paper.

I hoped you liked taking a peek into my world. If you would like to buy my work on ebay, my user name is: jelene.com

Hey, thanks for featuring me, and have a nice day :)

Jelene Morris
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