Jelene Morris: world of childlike characters

Jelene started developing her "cartoony" child-like style around the age of 10, and realized that, "Hey, art is fun! This is what I want to do when I grow up!".

Later on, she started distorting her shapes and figures even more. She paints on whatever she can get her hands on: ceramics, canvas, paper, plastic, and wood. Jelene has just started showing her work in various galleries and even on a television show!

“Hello. My name is Jelene Morris and I am a professional artist from Columbia, SC, currently living in Kansas City, Missouri. I remember the first time I wanted to become an artist when I grew up, was at my 5 year old birthday party, with Mr. Knozit on tv. Mr. Knozit went around and asked the children what they wanted to be when they grew up, I wanted to say that I wanted to be an artist, but I was embarassed, so I said I wanted to be Wonder Woman instead. Having the thought of becoming an artist though, only made me want to draw all the time. I was fascinated with Snoopy and Garfield in the 80's. Trying to draw them.. other characters as well.

“In high school, I got art honors when I graduated, and got to wear the rainbow tassle on my gown. In college, I majored in studio art, against the will of my parents, who wanted me to become a teacher. I went to grad school for a bit, but got tired of school, and didn't finish... I started doing my own art thing, creating art on my own and showing it at the Morris Gallery in my town and selling it to different people. I soon discovered the world of the internet, and started my own business with jelene.com in 1998.

My work is based on the world of childlike characters and a lot of bright colors. Almost too much color. My Tickles the goldfish character is usually in my work. I used to have a real fish named Tickles, which inspired me. His girlfriend, Baby Dumpling is also involved in the paintings and is the peach goldfish with the pink pearls.

I started a small series of work which I called "minipops" and have other paintings such as the nightmare series, which is more abstracted. I take some varieties of my dreams and twist them into a silly story and make the nightmare paintings. The minipops are just simple forms of my ideas brought to life on a small canvas.

I've worked in all sorts of art mediums, from throwing clay to making sculptures out of wood.. but right now my focus is on painting. I paint mostly on handmade canvases, and on thick varieties of paper.

She considers her work a combination of Pop Art and Cartoons, forming the name "Poptoon". Her signature character is Tickles Goldfish and he lives in the world Poptoonville with his friends Baby Dumpling, Pokey the snail, Tommie Tooth and Blue Dog. Her darker style of work she refers to as the "Nightmare series".

It's kind of fun to imagine. Fun to imagine one of my crazy paintings in a huge art museum. It's also neat to see how it would look large, especially next to women wearing 80's style dresses, lol.

Compare/Contrast Picasso/ Morris

Student Work