Janet Ellen Morgan is an American artist, author, and teacher noted for her landscapes and the creation of a pantheon of 150 original deities.[1][2] Her work spans environmental education and public art.[3] She is also the author and illustrator of children's books.[4][5]
Morgan's expressionist landscapes in watercolor and pastel are depictions of geology, weather and movement of all kinds within the environment. Her travels have profoundly influenced her artistic vision, allowing her to capture the unique qualities of various landscapes, including those in Antarctica, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey, Bolivia, Peru, Patagonia, Death Valley, Eastern Oregon, the Canadian Rockies, and southern Utah.[2][6]
God and Goddess series
Morgan's God and Goddess series, which began in January 1988, consists of large-format watercolor portraits that celebrate aspects of the divine and the human, offering a way for the viewer to see themselves as sacred. The series features a variety of deities, from serious figures like The God of War to irreverent ones like The Goddess of the Joys of Petty Thievery, and even contemporary ones like The God of Safe Sex or The Bee Goddess.[1][7]
Public art
Public art installation for PS 273, commissioned by New York City Public Schools
In 2010, Morgan created a public art project for an early childhood center in Queens, New York, commissioned by New York City Public Schools. These designs were transformed into large terracotta tiles and installed in the stanchions of the school's fencing, alternating between right-side-up and upside-down orientations.[8][9][10][failed verification]
Residencies
Morgan has done a number of artistic and teaching residencies.[11][4] Among the residencies are Death Valley National Park,[12][2] Hanksville Elementary School in Utah, and the Luminous Bodies Residency Toronto.[13]
What Art Can Do: A Conversation with Janet Morgan by Heather Sanderson[18] (2025)
Further contributions include:
Morgan has created exhibition catalogs for a number of showsincluding:
Quintessence Three Visions for the Omega Institute (2014) in Rhinebeck, New York. In the introduction to this catalog, author Kim Stanley Robinson praised Morgan's work, stating:
"Morgan’s images display our own felt electricity, the crackling auras and fields that we know for sure are there, not just from new scientific sensors, but from the way our bodies so often feel. We are not only stardust, but wild patterned energy, dust devils swirling through space for just a time".[19]
Exhibition Catalogs including Morgans work include:
Crossed Destinies: A Tarot of the Artists: Creative Adventures Through the Major Arcana[20](2005) by Williamsburg Art Center
Music to My Eyes[21] (2006) and Sanctuary[22] (2016) by Tabla Rasa Gallery
The book What Art Can Do: A Conversation with Janet Morgan by Heather Sanderson has been reviewed by Ann Japenga.[23]
↑Morgan, Janet, Amina Eagle, David Rubin, Michael Schneider, John Sims, Kim Stanley Robinson. "Introduction." Quintessence: Three Visions. Create Space.April 4, 2014.
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