Holly Morrison (b. 1959)

Coming from the flat lands and sand dunes of Nebraska to the banks of the river and lake to take a faculty position at the Cleveland Institute of Art in the early 90s, Holly has been drawn to the city and its images. Her Bicentennial project, displayed as her installation for the “Urban Evidence: Contemporary Artists Reveal Cleveland” collaborative exhibit. Hers was at the Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art (now Museum of Modern Art Cleveland .) Now/Then consisted of 300 photographic images on every nook and cranny of a gritty city recording the neglect of neighborhoods that had no part in the city's renaissance. These graphic elements of neglect suggest civic failure, but every once in a while, there is a suggestion of rebirth amid the desolation. Facing North, 1995-96, installed on a facing wall, chronicled the comparative serenity of a year in the life of Lake Erie . A set of eight photographs out of the 300 or so are now in collection of the Federal Reserve Bank. Four from set of eight depict the changing values of the sky and lake in each of the four seasons are shown in this book. The Golden Game mural can be seen at the northwest corner tower of the fifth floor of the Cleveland Public Library, main branch. Painted directly on the ceiling and walls in blue, silver and gold, it serves as a vault. The figurative gold images and silver glyphs are taken from books on alchemy—a complicated medieval science used in making gold. Gold was thought to link to divinity. The ceiling works as a transition space between earth and sky.