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Hazel Belvo and Briand Morrison, former wife and son of George Morrison
How fitting. George Morrison was a stamp collector, said Hazel Belvo, who was married to George in 1960.
That was one of the many enduring, sweet recollections heard by an audience of 300 plus who attended the Grand Portage artist George Morrison (Wah Wah The Go Nay Ga) Forever Stamp Ceremony held at the Grand Portage Lodge and Casino atrium and lobby.
The celebration took place on Friday, April 22, at 1 p.m., with events lasting into the evening.
Former Tribal Chair and current Cook County/ Grand Marais Joint Economic Development Authority Director Elizabeth (Beth) Drost was the event’s emcee.
The talented Stone Bridge Drum Singers opened the ceremony with a song, followed by David “Nib” Aubid, Heredity Chief, Sandy Lake/Rice Lake Band of Ojibwe, who performed a pipe ceremony. Next followed the Presentation of Colors by two Grand Portage veterans, and then the National anthem, featuring Lyz Jaakola, Music faculty, Fond du Lac Tribal College Board of Directors, and Briand Morrison and Roxann Berglund who sang the anthem.
Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Tribal Council Chairman Robert (Bobby) Deschampe gave the crowd a big Bozhoo (hello) followed by a few recollections about Morrison, and then Miigwech (thankyou), thanking the folks for coming.
Heather Boyd, acting superintendent of the Grand Portage National Monument, came forward in part to remind everyone that there is an exhibit at the monument dedicated to George Morrison’s art. The show will run through September 2022.
Talking about meeting his uncle for the first time was John Morrin, a Committeeman on the Grand Portage Tribal Council. Morrin said he was five or six when his Uncle George Morrison came to visit. His mother had scrubbed the floors and cleaned the house more than usual to prepare for her brother’s visit. John talked about the pride his family felt in George’s success. However, at age six, John was enthralled with his uncle’s huge black dog, talking about the courage it took him to approach the beast. He also talked about his uncles’ wood collages, asking George if he sanded the pieces of wood to get them to fit together so tightly. When George told him no sanding or cutting was involved, John said he would stop and think about the patience it had to have taken to fit the disparate pieces of wood collected from across the globe into a piece of beautiful artwork.
Hearing stories like this cut from the cloth of real-life made the event that much more personal and endearing.
United States Postal Service Chief Customer and Marketing Officer & Executive V.P. Steve Monteith made the official stamp dedication.
“The U.S. Postal Service celebrates the work of George Morrison, one of the nation’s greatest modernist artists. Morrison is best known for his abstract landscapes and monumental wood collages that draw on his childhood memories and reflect a deep and abiding connection with the natural world,” Monteith said.
“A founding figure of Native American modernism, George Morrison challenged prevailing ideas of what Native American art should be, arguing that an artist’s identity can exist independently from the nature of the art he creates,” added Monteith.
Soft spoken Briand Mesaba Morrison talked about his father, his love of the land and culture. Much like his mother and father, Briand is an artist. He taught guitar at the West Bank School of Music at age 16, then attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA and then attended the University of Minnesota before moving home to Grand Portage.
Among other things, Kristin Makholm is the author of Modern Spirit: The Art of George Morrison. Makholm said when she was working as the Executive Director of St. Paul’s Museum of American Art, she discovered Morrison’s work when she co-curated a retrospective exhibit of George Morrison’s art that was traveling throughout the country. She talked about being astonished by the talented art work of George Morrison, which led to her chronicling his works.
Hazel Belvo, Artist and Minneapolis College of Art and Design Professor Emerita was rich in stories about George. Much like her late husband, Hazel has an artistic resume that reads like a book. In fact, there is a monograph published by Afton Press in 2020 about her life and work written by Art Historian Julia L ‘Enfant.
Hazel talked about the many letters George wrote, his love of stamps, and the work and dedication of the postal service to get his letters delivered.
Andrea Carlson’s art has been featured in shows throughout the U.S., Canada, and Europe. She is the daughter of Rudy and MaryKay (Knowlton) Carlson, both 1976 Cook County High School graduates. Her father, also an artist, introduced her to George Morison when she was 16. She said Morrison impressed upon her to get a formal education if she wanted to pursue art. “What is a formal education?” she asked her father. “It means go to college,” her dad wryly replied. Andrea received a Master of Fine Arts from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design in 2005 and a B.A. in Art and American Indian Studies from the University of Minnesota in 2003.
Today Andrea is married and living in Chicago. She works as a writer, curator, and lecturer. In 2020 she was instrumental in forming the Center for Native Futures—the only art center in Chicago dedicated to native art. Her art can be found hanging in the British Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and Canada’s National Gallery. She credits much of her success to the bridge created by George Morrison and other native American artists who paved the way for younger artists like herself.
The final speech came from Christina Woods, a Boise Forte Tribal Nation member. Christina is the Executive Director of the Duluth Art Institute. She also serves on the U.S. Senate Curatorial Advisory Board, among the many hats she wears. She read a letter from U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar, who apologized for not being able to attend the big day. Woods talked about being influenced by George Morrison and how his works inspired a whole group of Native American artists.
Each year the postal service receives about 30,000 stamp suggestions for requests, and each year they choose 25 to 30 topics. A committee of individuals selected by the Postmaster General who have disparate backgrounds winnow through the selections and bring their recommendations to the postmaster, who makes the final choice.
The U.S. Postal Service selected five of Morrison’s abstract landscape paintings to put on a panel of 20 Forever Stamps.
George Morrison was born in Chippewa City in 1919 and passed away on April 17, 2000.
At age nine, George suffered from tuberculosis in his left hip. He had surgery and needed more than a year to recover, much of that time spent in a full-body cast. During this period, he began to draw, and his talent became apparent. Morrison was noted for his wood collages and bright landscape paintings. After graduating from Grand Marais High School, George attended the Minnesota School of Art, graduating in 1943. He taught at the Cape Ann Art School for a time and, in 1952, received a Fulbright Scholarship, studying in Paris. In 1953 he was awarded a John Hay Whitney Fellowship and moved to Duluth. George moved to New York in 1954, where he became friends with Franz Kline, Willem de Kooning and Jackson Pollack. He taught college in Minneapolis, Duluth, Cornell, Penn State, and Iowa State, among other places, and from 1963 to 1970, he taught at the Rhode Island School of Fine Design.
George retired to his Lake Superior home in the mid-1980s. Although physically unable to create the large pieces he had done when he was younger, George created many wonderful abstract paintings featuring the many moods of the ever-changing Lake Superior. George also produced the Horizon series and various other works of art during this time, creating until he passed away, his legacy now firmly stamped in time.
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