Morgan Hamilton

Mom and Dad, Scotland, 1982

Morgan Hamilton is a multi-state artist and doctoral candidate at Florida State University, studying in the Museum Education and Visitor-Centered Curation Program, concentrating on museum educator professionalism and equity in the art museum. He is a proud alum from the FSU BFA program, 2013. Afterward, he earned his MFA from The University of Delaware, and served as the associate curator at The Delaware Contemporary before joining the Center for Undergraduate Research and Academic Engagement at FSU as an assistant director. He is a son of retired Navy Cryptologists, and his childhood was spent moving all over the world, which led to his love of culture and advocacy for equity.

This tacky, dirty, chipped frame once held a landscape of an Alpine chalet from about 1981 to 2020. My parents met in the Navy, which meant my brother and I picked up and moved every few years. Few constants remained in our lives, but the framed painting was one of them. It hung above my parents’ bed in every house until 2014, when my dad died. My mother found him unresponsive kneeling on their bed as if praying. I gave him CPR until the paramedics arrived, and I remember looking up at the landscape, trying not to think about his cold skin. I took the painting with me for more years of moving for school and work. The frame held a landscape which didn’t comfort me anymore, so I decided to change it.

Artwork Description

I do not claim a primary medium because I start from the narrative and develop from there. Whatever medium suits the task of telling the story, building the world, or fleshing out a character is what I focus on. I tend toward transmedia, where different unrelated media converge to tell a single story. This painting is no exception, I started from the moment I last saw my dad and traced the frame to when my Mom and Dad first met in Scotland. The portrait tells a story about the frame, and the frame tells a story of the portrait.