Malcolm Campbell Moran

This body of work started unexpectedly at a time when my ability to verbally express my feelings was just not happening. As I recall, it was in my mid-thirties and I was trying to plan my next “move” in life. I scribbled a picture of an unidentifiable animal, wrote “Bewildered Best” above it, and pinned it up on the wall next to my computer. It filtered in over time that the sketch described a feeling that I could not have expressed in any form other than a picture. It was a very concrete form of “getting in touch”. I have continued in this vein ever since.

Malcolm Moran's recent work from his "Birds Up Close Series" are inspired by John J Audubon's portfolio of engravings "The Birds of America", a folio of engraved plates produced between 1827-1838 from watercolors created from his travels throughout the Eastern United States. As a native of  south Louisiana, Malcolm Moran first encountered birds, like Audubon, first as a hunter and later as an artist. His awareness of the majesty of these amazing little creatures and first face to face encounter came at an early age.

Early in my Career I was introduced to the art of small collage with found objects. An art school friend and I often spent weekends rummaging through flee markets for the perfect and "cheap" collage material. This incessant collecting in turn lead to a series of collages of found and created objects, cut paper, flat metal, wire, and other flotsam. I tended to look upon this work as an exercise, as a piano player might practice his scales. But unlike typical repetitive practice, these self contained pieces give me great pleasure and express ideas and impressions I could otherwise not communicate in my figurative work.