{"id":17102,"date":"2025-05-21T08:12:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-21T12:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/?p=17102"},"modified":"2025-05-21T05:46:48","modified_gmt":"2025-05-21T09:46:48","slug":"8000-pencils-45-years-6-careers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/2025\/05\/21\/8000-pencils-45-years-6-careers\/","title":{"rendered":"8,000 Pencils, 45 Years, 6 Careers"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Citizen Soldiers<\/em>, pencil drawing on fabricated wood and acrylic; installation for National Guard, 2022<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Throughout his almost five decades as an artist and illustrator, Bruce Morser \u201976 has focused on six very different areas: large photoreal paintings; detailed commercial illustration; large, 3-D installations; portraiture (including commissions for Colgate Magazine<\/em>); book illustrations; and adventure art. His retrospective show \u2014 titled 8,000 Pencils, 45 Years, 6 Careers, 1 Artist \u2014 which ran during April at Vashon (Wash.) Center for the Arts, included several images from each area and totaled approximately 90 pieces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve sort of been a perpetual 101-level student in countless subjects,\u201d Morser says. \u201cThe whole point of my career has been its diversity, a luxury many visual artists and illustrators never get. It\u2019s been a really wonderful ride and education.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a complement to the exhibition, Morser delivered a talk about creativity, titled \u201cIf I Only Had a Brain.\u201d He asks, \u201cEver notice how the Scarecrow worries about not having a brain but cleverly solves a ton of problems?\u201d Morser adds, \u201cCreativity is hard to locate \u2014 difficult to pin down. Its source is everywhere, almost scary, like vague flashes of lightning through a dense evening fog. My best ideas seem to come behind me. I feel but rarely see them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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JJ, pencil portrait on paper, 2013 <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n
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Bicycle #1, pencil and acrylic paint on fabricated bicycle sculpture (ridable!), 1988<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Rocks Become Animals, story book illustration (Memories of Castle Island), color pencil on paper, 2008<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A recent exhibition celebrated artist and illustrator Bruce Morser ’76.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":17723,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2],"tags":[354,37,2080],"coauthors":[388],"class_list":["post-17102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-alumni-spotlights","category-alumni-updates","tag-alumni","tag-art","tag-artist"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/palXSH-4rQ","amp_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/05\/National-Guard.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17102"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17102\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17896,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17102\/revisions\/17896"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17102"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=17102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}