Norval Morrisseau: Travels to the House of Invention

Patricia Morley is professor emerita of English and Canadian studies at
Concordia University, and the author of Kurlek, Margaret Laurence: The
Long Journey Home, and As Though Life Mattered: Leo Kennedy’s Story.

Norval Morrisseau is the leading artist in the Woodland School of Art.
As Donald Robinson notes in his essay, “Tales of Copper
Thunderbird,” Morrisseau’s paintings teach “the dignity of his
people, the importance of the environment and the interconnection among
all living things.”

The Art of Norval Morrisseau (1979) by Lister Sinclair and Jack
Pollock, which featured striking reproductions of Morrisseau’s bold
and iconic paintings, was the first book to celebrate the work of this
Native artist. Norval Morrisseau: Travels to the House of Invention is
the second. Here, the artist’s brief comments are set facing full-page
color reproductions of paintings that reveal the world of Ojibwa myth
and legend. “I paint,” says Morrisseau, “to reassemble the pieces
of a once-proud culture ... to show the dignity and bravery of my people
... to show uncorrupted impressions of Ojibwa beliefs, gods and
creatures.”

In the book’s introduction Robert McMichael calls Morrisseau the
acknowledged father of the new art depicting Anishnabae legend.
Morriseau’s beautiful and significant work should not be missed.