Hybridized Daylily

Just prior to receiving his B.F.A. in sculpture, Shawn Morin asked one of the professors he admired most: “So, do you think I have what it takes to be an artist”? Without missing a beat or bating an eye, he smiled and said, “NO, you don’t.” A few months later Morin entered the M.F.A. program as the University of Georgia in Athens as an “irregular undergrad,” which, when translated means, “we’ll let you enroll on a trial basis, take your money for a year and see what happens”. After successfully completing his first year in Athens, he was fully accepted into the masters program and granted an assistantship. However, a few weeks later he received a letter from the university stating that his assistantship was being revoked and that he was being asked to leave the university due to low GRE test scores. Nevertheless, Morin completed his M.F.A. the following year and at age 26 began his teaching career. Recently, he chaired a committee that abolished the GRE requirement for M.F.A. applicants at BGSU. The very next year, the number of graduate applications in the School of Art more than doubled.

Morin has just completed his nineteenth year as Head of the Sculpture Program at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. He has participated in more than 140 exhibitions throughout the country, and his work can be seen in 15 permanent public collections, and is included in over 35 private collections. Since 1992, nearly every one of Morin’s own graduate students are currently teaching in high schools, colleges, and universities around the country.

For more information, visit shawnmorinsculpture.com.