Strong Possibilities

Strong Possibilities is about the space a relationship still has left to grow into. Two people share one small room, unhurried, comfortable in each other's presence, on the edge of whatever comes next. Everything needed is already in the room: warmth, ease, trust, the comfort of being unguarded with someone. Frank Morrison holds the scene right there, in the quiet before anything is decided, when every version of what comes next is still on the table.

She sits facing us on the rolled rim of a clawfoot tub, wrapped in a white towel, both arms lifted and her hands working through her hair. Her head turns in profile to her right, eyes lowered, in no hurry. Her curls spread wide and catch the light coming from that side. Her legs stretch long toward the viewer, knees together, bare feet on the tile. Behind her hangs a cream shower curtain covered in a bold black starburst pattern, and her partner is in the shower behind it, his form visible at the upper left. On the floor below, clothing lies where it fell, denim and red and a flash of yellow, with a pair of shoes at the edge of the frame.

Morrison splits the canvas into two temperatures. The left side falls away into cool gray, a mirror in a gold frame, a small vanity, a doorway edge. The right side stays warm, lit, and patterned. She sits exactly on the seam between them. The starburst curtain is painted flat and graphic, and the contrast between that hard, repeating pattern and the softly modeled skin in front of it gives the piece its pull. Her hair reads almost as a corona against the light. The white towel is the brightest value on the canvas and pulls the eye straight to her.

Morrison's unique voice and style radiate in the painting. The elongated limbs, the extended neck, the exaggerated curve of the spine, and the compressed torso all come out of Mannerist figure construction, the same stretch you find in sixteenth-century Italian painting, redirected here toward contemporary Black life. He rendered the figure and the tub with tight, controlled brushwork, then loosened his hand for the clothes on the floor, where the paint stays wet, quick, and gestural. The vertical 28 x 48 format gives her the full height of the canvas and lets the composition breathe upward through the curtain.

Frank Morrison came up in New Jersey as a graffiti writer and breakdancer before he ever picked up a brush professionally. A tour through Europe with his dance crew took him into the Louvre, and the encounter with the Old Masters redirected his life. He taught himself their methods and applied them to the people and places he knew, building the elongated, fluid figure style now known as urban mannerism. He has illustrated more than thirty children's books and holds Coretta Scott King Illustrator Awards, a John Steptoe Award, and NAACP Image Award recognition. His work has been shown at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Art Basel, Scope Miami, and Expo Chicago, and hangs in the collections of Queen Latifah, Bishop T.D. Jakes, Derek Jeter, and Peggy Cooper Cafritz. Each canvas he signs carries the notation TTG, for "Thanks To God."

Strong Possibilities measures 28 x 48 inches and is offered as a giclee on canvas, hand-signed and numbered by the artist and shipped with a certificate of authenticity. Choose the unstretched canvas, the gallery-stretched canvas ready to hang, or the stretched canvas finished in a black or white floater frame. The white floater keeps the room light and airy; the black floater sharpens the contrast and pushes the starburst pattern forward.

Edition Sizes: Strong Possibilities is released in four tiers. The standard Limited Edition is 25 pieces. The Artist Proof edition is 5 pieces. The Remarque edition is 10 pieces, each carrying an original drawing by the artist. The Hors de Commerce edition is 5 pieces. Every piece across all four tiers is hand-signed and numbered by Frank Morrison and ships with a certificate of authenticity. Once a tier sells out, that edition is retired.

A natural fit for a primary bedroom, a dressing area, a powder room, or anywhere a couple wants something warm and quietly personal on the wall.