Indiana University Southeast senior art students and alumni recently had their work featured in a show at KORE Gallery in Louisville, Kentucky.
After that ended, the owner/manager, Don Cartwright, was drawn to one of the students’ work and asked if he’d be interested in being showcased there.
That art was done by Medora native Griffin Morris.
The 23-year-old IUS senior is the only currently enrolled student to receive that opportunity.
While art he has created has been in school-funded galleries and shows, he said this is his first time as an artist by himself getting into a gallery.
“He said that with his gallery, he didn’t really have anyone doing this stuff that I was doing,” Morris said of Cartwright. “He has a lot of artists doing a variety of things but not necessarily with all of the line work I was doing, like the ink drawings that I’m doing.”
Morris signed a yearlong contract with KORE. Currently, ink drawings and prints are on display and available for purchase.
If those are sold, other pieces will be swapped in.
“With this contract, I become a member,” Morris said. “They are open all year-round, so my work will get to stay there all year. … If my stuff is doing well and he wants more work in, I can sign more contracts and put in more work, newer work.”
As a college student and someone who has had a longtime interest in art, Morris considers this a great accomplishment.
“One of the things that Don told me was that it’s very rare that someone my age can get into a gallery,” Morris said. “Hearing that and being able to see my work in the gallery, it was just like, ‘Oh my goodness! I’m like an actual artist now’ is how I felt. I’ve always been like, ‘I do art,’ but for some reason, I never wanted to say, ‘Oh yes, I am an artist.’ Now seeing that, it’s kind of just like, ‘Wow! I’m really doing it.’”
KORE Gallery opened March 1, 2012, as a contemporary art gallery with four members, according to koreartgallery.com. It continues to evolve and currently represents more than 80 artists.
At various times, it hosts invitational shows along with solo and group shows. The present location at 942 E. Kentucky St. offers 5,700 square feet of exhibit space.
Its mission is to provide affordable original art from emerging and established local artists and provide a connection for collectors of affordable art while giving back to the community. The gallery frequently partners with local nonprofits and foundations to assist in fundraising charitable events.
Morris grew up in Medora and graduated from Medora High School in 2018.
His interest in art started at a young age.
“My uncle used to draw me a bunch of comic book characters. He would draw me pictures of Batman and Spider-Man,” he said. “Then when I got into the fourth grade, my teacher, Mr. (Adam) Disque, introduced us to this book about comics, and he said you can make your own comics.”
After that, Morris said his whole idea of art just changed.
“I started drawing all the time,” he said. “Once I actually started collecting comics, I was looking at the way artists were drawing the characters. A lot of people just see the characters or the colors that are on the page, but I started seeing the line work and the way that they were approaching the form and use of hatch lines and stuff like that.”
High school is when Morris felt he was starting to get really good at art.
“People had seen my work and stuff and they would ask me, ‘Hey, if you were to draw this for me, I would pay you’ or ‘If you did that logo for me,’” he said. “I started getting people asking me to do work for them is when I was like, ‘Oh, maybe I do have something going on here that I can work with.’ It definitely opened my eyes.”
He was specifically drawn to drawing comic books.
“I’ve always leaned toward that line art and character drawings and stuff like that,” Morris said. “When you’re drawing a panel and say you have multiple characters in a frame, it gets to be so exciting. … When I’m drawing, I’m getting to put all of these details and arrange these characters. Whenever you get it, it’s so satisfying seeing your ideas coming together.”
He started at IUS in the spring of 2019 and decided on pursuing a Bachelor of Fine Arts with a concentration in drawing.
“I love drawing. I draw a lot,” he said. “I was like, ‘This is the best option for me, spend more time focusing on that and getting more time with the head person of the drawing program.’”
Morris has had his work featured in the art gallery inside Knobview Hall on the IUS campus, at Logan Street Market during Zine Fest in Louisville and at other area galleries.
“I’ve had a lot of opportunity through the school backing me,” he said. “I’ve had some of my classmates reaching out to me and was like, ‘Hey, there’s this person doing this, and I think you would be good for it.’ I’ve actually got some drawings published into an art book with local artists from Louisville.”
The opportunities have exceeded his expectations.
“Just being here, being in the art program, I’ve made so many connections and been able to do so much through it. It has been great,” he said. “It definitely opened my eyes to so many different things, just opportunities.”
After graduation in May, Morris said he wants to self-publish a comic series he’s working on and continue to pursue his passion in that area of art.
“I’ve talked with my professor, and by the end of this semester, we’re going to start looking at applying for comic book companies and try to get a job there,” he said. “At some point, I want to really go into that and really do more than what I’m doing with it now.”
Even with the comic book art, he said he will still be doing art outside of that that will be more gallery-focused.
With the success he has had so far, Morris hopes he inspires others to pursue their dreams, even if they come from a small town and school like Medora.
“If you’re passionate about something, no matter what it is, if they stick with it and are really consistent with it and make people aware, especially in your hometown, like, ‘Hey, this is what I want to do,’ even if there are some people that might be like, ‘Well, maybe you shouldn’t do that,’ you’ll find people that will support you and be like, ‘Yes, do that,’” he said.
“If they have the opportunity to go to college, then they’ll have so many more people there saying, ‘Yeah, this is awesome. Do that,’” he said. “Be consistent, stick with it, and there might be some fear, but that’s part of it. That’s part of the fun. You get to learn and grow from it.”
If you go
KORE Gallery is at 942 E. Kentucky St., Louisville, Kentucky.
Hours are by appointment only on Mondays and Tuesdays, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays and noon to 4 p.m. Sundays.
For information, call 502-333-4355, visit koreartgallery.com or email [email protected].