Morgan Burton Johnson was born in Santa Monica, California, on November 25, 1952. He received his Bachelor of Arts Degree in Psychology from the University of California, San Diego, in La Jolla in 1974 after attending the Lycee du Universite au Dijon in Dijon, France, where he received a Certificate of Foreign Studies in culture in 1968. Although he has received no formal education in the arts, his work is refined and varied, including the painting techniques of oil on canvas, linen, glass, cardboard and wood, watercolor and water media, palette knife, collage and encaustic painting, while his writing expressions have included poetry, short stories, biography and the novel.
His styles in both range from classic realism, pointillism and fauvism to abstract expressionism and minimalism, all reflecting the diversity of the twentieth century. His impressionist and divisionist painting has been the object of his awards and shows, combined with his interpretive poetry until the early 2000s when he found his own style, Fractionalism.
The artist started painting at age eight, receiving paid commissions at age twelve. He has completed several murals, two of which are located at the UCSD campus in La Jolla, with one a competition design winner for Discovery Hall, Revelle College, 1971. He has been published in the San Diego Union (1971), the La Jolla Light (1976), the Advocate (1978), the Long Beach Tribune (1978, 1996), the Medford Tribune (1993), the San Francisco Bay Times (1994), the National Library of Poetry(1997-2005), Who’s Who in the West (1997-2002), Who’s Who in America (1999-2005), Who’s Who in the World (1998-2006) and is included in two books from American References Publishing: The California Art Review, 1990, and American Artists: A Survey of Leading Contemporaries. He currently works in fine art restoration, writing and painting.
The majority of paintings selected for this display are from the Content Series, which is about finding the composition of joy or self, mate or home, and putting those experiences of one's world into the realm of being full, defined and realized. Confetti of Light focuses on that moment when light shines down as a glittering burst on that sense of isolation when you thought the world dull and lifeless. Content at a Distance is about living outside the bright lights and city bustle, secure in the knowledge that it can always be visited. Contiguous Route is a location near my home portraying Ferry Hole Bar, an island in the Rogue River. Ethereal Content suggests the calmness of being a singular being afloat in the light of sunset or sunrise. Convolution of Light is the port of Gold Beach, a quiet but once bustling area, where boats--as people--can sit and await night and fog to lift. Ice Dance marks the thaw in which a frozen world comes to life through melting, but can be but temporary as the poetic moments are. Lighthouse is the fresnel Lens at Cape Blanco Lighthouse, an explosion of abstracted sunlight. Ephemeral speaks to the transitory aspect of each day, each sunset, and how known are the same and ever changing.