Morris Pina

It is not always easy to find the dividing line between craft and art, and the arguments about it are never ending. But in Maurizio Pina, or “Morris” (as he prefers to be called) the two blend perfectly. He draws inspiration from his surroundings, the clear air atop the mountains of his homeland and the immensity of the sea. He is not a person of many words. He finds them both limited and limiting, but his works carry his message, a message of hope about the future, which in our society may look bleak, but which is not impossible. In his amazing hand-painted glass, he combines the physical beauty of colours and of something mystical that both evolves and transcends the physical. When looking at his “glass sculptures” the cosmos opens up for us, from a central point, he makes it expand in a series of coloured waves, rays and jewel-like dots that take you into another world, where you can find the cosmic energy which is in fact where our strengths are.

Then there are his paintings, extraordinarily poignant in their simplicity. On a usually black background naked figures, perhaps representing our inner self, seem to float in the infinite. Morris has given those titles and a brief written thought about his feelings for each of them.

Here are a few examples:

EMERGE. A figure emerging from the sea brings a message of other existence.

DISCOVERY. An astronaut-like being walks on a white path towards a multicoloured planet perhaps indicating a journey to your inner self.

TRANSFERENCE. An ascending figure in a white bubble or sun, a hand reaches him, a sea of hands wave goodbye at the bottom.

SHELL. A man sitting in a kind lotus position, is flanked by two candles, a figure (the soul, his feelings) emerges from the man’s head.

This is a very powerful and spiritual watercolour.

MOTHER EARTH. In which a man floats in the Universe attached to the Earth by an umbilical cord, brings to us the message of the importance of the Earth and our responsibility for its conservation and welfare.

So, yes Morris is a person of a few words but then he does not need them, his art speaks for him.

Maurizio Pina was born in Sondrio (Italy) in 1966. At the age of twenty he moved to England where he continues to live and create his work.