Jason Taylor Morgan

Artist Statement. Visual Poetry: My Artist Journey

I began painting at age 66 during the early days of Covid. Restless, retired, and stuck on my sixth novel, I ordered acrylics and canvas boards from Amazon on a whim. Though I’d never painted before, something in me recognized the new creative opening—and I stepped through. Within six months, I developed my own techniques. A month later, I sold my first pieces. Soon after, I was named Guest Artist, then Resident Artist, at the Cloverdale Arts Alliance Gallery.

Born in Boston, MA, and a lifelong writer and abstract thinker, painting came surprisingly naturally. I call my work Visual Poetry—intuitive abstracts that draw on magical thinking from memory, emotion, nature, dreams, and the ethereal world. I begin each piece with only a feeling or faint impression and let spontaneity take over, like a poetry slam. My unusual form of dyslexia adds a layer of improvisation and urgency to everything I create.

I’m self-taught and led by instinct—still amazed by what arrives when I trust the process. My influences include Abstract Expressionism, the mood, color, and emotion of Impressionism, the subconscious mind, emotive literary and poetic imagery, and the unpredictable relationship movement and chaos have with stillness and contemplation. Painting gives me what writing novels over years can’t: immediacy, surprise, and a powerful connection to the present moment.

Before turning to art, I built a long career as a senior marketing and public relations agency executive, worked as a counselor for at-risk youth, and taught consciousness and emotional healing work. Before and after raising two daughters in Wellesley, Massachusetts, I spent seven years traveling—two of them in London and Paris in the late 1970s, where I wrote my first novel, edited children’s books for Hamish Hamilton, and guest lectured at Harrow College of Art. I've written six novels. Five of those seven years were spent on a slow, purposeful personal and spiritual road journey across America.