Mittelbayerische Zeitung April 28, 2006

The Authentic Germany for “Mission Impossible 3”
An artist living in Amberg, Matt Morris, photographs for Hollywood/from the 5th of May he is exhibiting at the Firehouse.

by Nicole Bart

AMBERG. It was two to three years that artist Matt Morris and his wife Danielle wanted to spend in Europe. Since then seven years have gone by, the married couple still lives in the Amberg inner city and feel quite comfortable. Four years ago son Max joined the world in Germany. From the 6th to the 21st of May at the Old Firehouse in the City Museum exhibits Matt Morris some of his paintings and collages.

Born in the north of the United States, Matt Morris spent his childhood and youth in the state of Louisiana, where he studied art for four years at Louisiana State University. He later studied another three years at California State University in Los Angeles (sic: I studied in San Diego), where after graduation he stayed on for another year as an adjunct instructor.

The love for Europe was discovered by the 37 year old on his honeymoon in Barcelona and Paris. “The European culture is completely different than American culture. Everything is so close, compared to America where it is possible sometimes to drive several miles and not see anything,” says Morris. He enjoys walking in the morning to a bakery and getting his bread. “In America that normally isn’t possible - one must always drive a car. A city in America so tiny as Amberg would probably only have a supermarket and a McDonald’s, but definitely not a performing arts theater or such a picturesque market square.”

After the honeymoon trip he made the decision with his wife to come to Germany and spend two or three years here - he as an artist, she as a physical therapist. Three years turned into seven, and the Americans have in the meantime become accustomed to life in the Oberpfalz. “Amberg is a wonderful quiet place to bring up a child,” says the painter. Son Max meanwhile goes to Kindergarten. “When I speak German, one knows I come from America - my son speaks like a native.” Despite the love of Germany - sometime the family wants to return to the United States. The artist is drawn to the west coast: “The art there speaks to my work more so than the east coast.”

His art work begins usually with a photo. With a small digital camera Morris captures moments, small details of things, things that catch his eye, that interest him. Enlargements of these photos he adheres to a panel and further develops or completes with acrylic paint. Connections develop between the photos and what Morris paints - mostly relationships between nature and technology are depicted. “These relationships are not necessarily always negative for nature. I try to represent how nature and technology can coexist, what kind of interplay is there between these two sides.”

Ideas for his collages are kept in a small sketchbook. Sometimes the artist needs a few weeks for a composition, sometimes just a few days. At the moment he is working on a triptych, a series of three pictures with St. George and the Dragon as the theme. He wants them to be seen in a new context. The dragon as a creature that isn’t real, actually imagined by man, symbolizes the technology, and with it also problems, that humanity must overcome and abide by.

Especially proud is Morris that he was able to contribute a small part to the new film “Mission Impossible 3.” One of his earlier university colleagues from Los Angeles (sic) moved after his studies at California State University to Hollywood to work for Paramount Pictures. The new blockbuster with superstar Tom Cruise would have been shot in Germany, but the filmmaker never found a suitable location for the film. Without further ado they called Matt Morris, living in Germany. He was to take pictures of signs, emergency exit signs, and other things that would be found in a German factory and a German record store. With the help of these photos a set could be built in Hollywood, the factory and the record store, so that one couldn’t tell the difference. “Of course it’s neat to work for a film that Tom Cruise plays in. Too bad I didn’t get to meet him,” jokes Morris, who had a lot of fun with his project for Paramount Pictures.

At the exhibition from the 6th to 21st of May at the Old Firehouse in the City Museum there will be ten of his paintings and collages to see. “For the space, that is a relatively small amount for me to provide, but one can spend more time contemplating the pictures when every free spot on the wall is not hung with something. When looking one can have longer to think.”

The exhibition in the Firehouse is open Tuesday to Friday from 11 to 4 and Saturday and Sunday from 11 to 5. The opening reception begins on Friday the 5th of May at 7:30 pm. Entrance is free.