Bruce Morrow and Buffy Cribbs have been on a “continuous, collaborative, and creative adventure,” together onWhidbey Island for nearly 40 years. They have worked as carpenters and furniture makers, finally reaching a time in their lives where they can be full-time artists.
Now, to their list of adventures, add writing.
Morrow has published his first book, Nine Bean-Rows. It is a fictionalized biography inspired by his wife’s growing-up story of moving with her mother and siblings from California to Ireland in 1966. Cribbs has described her formative years as haphazard—“life so strewn with seemingly unconnected experience which, nevertheless, seemed to add up to some kind of whole.”
Nine Bean-Rows is illustrated by Morrow with a series of drypoint-on-Plexiglass prints, which are included in an April two-person show at Rob Schouten Gallery in Langley, Washington. Printmaking is a prominent medium for Morrow as the couple also run Flicker Feather Press, a studio on their property where visiting printmakers have access to a Takach 30-by-60-inch printing press, a rosin box, a downdraft exhaust table, a ferric chloride dip tank, an industrial hot plate, and glass-top inking stations.
Morrow’s preferred medium is oil paint because he likes the quality of the colors, yet his watercolors are stunning in their simplicity and gentle machismo. He began painting watercolors after finding a killer deal on a stack of watercolorpaper at a garage sale.
Cribbs’ medium is reverse painting on acrylic or plexiglass, a method wherein details are painted before the background colors after which the sheets are flipped for the final view. Although she suffered a stroke five years ago, Cribbs still arrives in the studio to paint her often whimsical paintings.
Morrow once spent time in the U.S. Southwest, an experience that has crept into his imagery. “So, this figure,” he explained, “this dude emerged and he seemed to represent to me the ennui of the displaced American male, the maverick, the cowboy without a range.” Much like the “dudes” in works by Pacific Northwest artist Gaylen Hansen (now 104 years old!) and the late James Martin, Morrow’s alter-ego cowboy rides horseback through the landscape, passing through while being superbly present.
Nine Bean-Rows is available at www.cribbs-morrow.com in both ebook and paperback formats. Having enjoyed the writing experience, Morrow is already working on a few new projects. “I am writing a memoir thing,” he says, “plus a suspense thing that takes place in Mexico.”
Stay tuned.
Edie Everette
Edie Everette is a local artist and writer. To view her art, visit www.edieeverette.com.
View Bruce Morrow’s art, April 1-27, Monday, Thursday, Friday, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturday & Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Rob Schouten Gallery, located at 101 Anthes Avenue in Langley, Washington. For more information, visit www.robschoutengallery.com.
