The Sedona Arts Center is partnering with the Sedona Heritage Museum to present the Myrna Harrison Exhibition and Sale from Friday, Sept. 6, through Sunday, Sept. 29. An artist’s reception to kick off the exhibition will be held as part of Celebrate Sedona on Sept. 6. Music will be provided by a duo from the Sedona Symphony.
“The deserts in Arizona deeply move me, the color of it, the strength of it, its unusualness,” Harrison said. “I grew up in the coastal areas in New York and in California, and the landscape here is so different. It’s just very moving and much more intense than the landscapes on the coast, which tend to be gently rolling and green in color. Here, the rocks and particularly around Sedona, the way the mountains and the rocks look are just really exciting and expressive.”
“Usually you walk into a museum and the stuff you see is not for sale, even though we get that question all the time, we are very protective of the artwork and artifacts and archival items in our collection that we’re keeping in perpetuity for future generations,” Sedona Heritage Museum Director Nate Meyers said. “So this is doing an exhibit where the stuff you see is actually something you could buy and take home with you, is a really different, different thing for us.”
“I’ve been an artist all of my life,” Harrison said. “My father was an animator when cartoons were in black and white. I studied with Hans Hofmann in Provincetown, Mass., and I’ve had a lot of shows there at the museum in Provincetown. I lived in Wickenburg around 30 years, and I’ve had a show there. I’ve shown all over, including the James Ratliff Gallery in Sedona for eight years.”
“Columbia Pictures had its own cartoon arm. My father worked there, he was an animator and a director, and his name was Ben Harrison,” Harrison continued. “My mother [Ruth Hildebrand] was a hat designer, and they had met in New York and moved to California, to Hollywood, and he did the animated ‘Mutt and Jeff’ and the ‘Krazy Kat.’ He had worked all his life, and even after he retired, he still did cartoons.”
One of Harrison’s first jobs was working for her father during her summer vacations in the 1950s, doing inking and the occasional background. She attended the Music and Art High School in New York City. After finishing school, she found herself taking on various odd jobs, like working in department stores and the night shift at Western Union.
At that time, Hans Hofmann, a prominent abstract artist on the rise, was becoming increasingly well-known in the art community. Harrison approached him to discuss her interest in his work, and he offered her a scholarship. Hofmann’s school, which had locations in both New York City and Provincetown, focused on abstract expressionist art.
“I think that it made it much looser and the color brighter,” Harrison said of the effect of the experience on her work. “I think studying with him made it much more modern than it would have been if I hadn’t studied with him.” Over 30 works from Harrison’s decades-long career will be on display and for sale at both locations. The proceeds from the sale will be split between SAC, SHM and Harrison.
“I think my work is also very expressionistic,” Harrison said, referring to much of her work as “semi abstract landscapes.” “It’s abstract but it’s expressionistic, it’s a way of looking at landscapes that isn’t trying to reproduce a photograph, but to say something about how it affects us, how we see it, or how I see it.”
These days, Harrison said, her work has become more figurative and less abstract since relocating to Surprise about a year ago with her cat.
“For me, it was a very natural way of doing things,” Harrison said. “Before I moved here, I had a place in Wickenburg for around 30 years with great views. Having a view has always been very important to me … I just love landscapes. I don’t think I can give you a better answer and Arizona has absolutely glorious landscapes, and Sedona has some of the most glorious in Arizona.”
Harrison relocated to Arizona in 1980 to become president of Rio Salado Community College, then took over Gateway Community College from 1985 to 1988. She next led Phoenix College until her retirement and move to Wickenburg in 1993.
“We’re featuring Myrna as an element of history, as she does go back in Sedona,” SAC CEO Julie Richard said. “Also we will be celebrating that night our fairly long-time ceramics teacher, Neil Kennedy, who is going to be leaving town … We’ve got a couple of new folks who are going to be teaching and who are stepping up to bridge the gap that he leaves. And one of them is Ben Roti and John Post and the other is John Post.”
