This summer the Morgan side of my family celebrated a much-delayed family reunion. My favourite part was the evening many of us ended on Long Beach, Coley’s Point. For the first time since I was a child, we were there when the capelin started rolling. That was when the great-great grandchildren of George Henry Morgan (that man who left the fishing boat to work as a printer) caught fish, some for the first time. It’s not hard to do, mind you, when capelin are rolling right into your hands, but it’s a lot of fun. That’s George Henry and Maggie MacGregor Morgan and their three youngest daughters in the photo above. They were my father’s grandparents.

This year I’ve been thinking a lot about family while creating art with Kelly Jane Bruton and Mitzi Pappas Smyth. Our collaboration “The Juniper Tree in Three Voices” is enjoying a Connections residency at the St. John’s, Arts & Culture Centre. As the Wicked Stepmother says in that Grimm’s fairy tale: Less said sooner mended. This storytelling art installation will be made public sometime in February or March 2023. I’ll post details here and on our FaceBook page “Juniper Tree Collaboration”. But, before that, I promise to post photos and have a page here where you can have a sneak peak into our residency.

If you are here out of interest in the S.S. Caribou and the on-going research I’ve been doing on the people who crossed the Gulf that fateful night eighty years ago…the Virtual Museum of Canada has partnered with the Shipwreck Preservation Society of NL and  the Port aux Basques’ Railway Heritage Museum to produce a virtual exhibit, which I was honoured to help with. But, until we launch that site, you can find out some things by clicking my menu item “S.S. Caribou” above or checking out my (dormant) website S.S. Caribou Manifest.

If you’ve read all the way to this paragraph, you may be one of my super faithful customers. The woodblock engraving and letterpress printing side of my practice, Morgan’s Printing/Art, now operates from the basement of my house. This year I have a printer’s devil in Virginia Stoddard. My wonderful apprentice is funded by Heritage Newfoundland & Labrador’s mentor-apprentice program. This work has kept me too busy to market my artwork. However, look for my prints in the NL Craft Council’s store The Pantry on Water Street East, St. John’s, in November, when you will see my latest engravings based on photos of 19th century women working.

Jennifer Morgan, August 2022

P.S. I’m hoping to post monthly updates of my activities here. But, in the meantime, if you want to contact me, you can find my email hidden in ancient text below: