By Ruth Ann Ruiz
The Post Newspaper Features Editor
Born in Galveston, today he calls Vidor home. But he makes regular trips back to his hometown for dining, theater, musical shows, and the beach plus checking in on his artwork at From the Heart Gallery.
A 1961 graduate of Texas City High School, Haskell “Buddy” Morris has been an artist at heart since kindergarten. “I paid real close attention to every art lesson my teachers taught,” said Morris. He started picking up a knack for painting right around his time as a student at TCHS.
His first job after attending Sam Houston State University to study commercial art was as a draftsman. “It was the closest job that came to working on what I had studied,” explained Morris. The job was a bit boring for him, so he went into sales and landed with Clairol Products as a regional representative.
His success in sales took him to car sales and he sold advertisement for radio stations, “You name it, I was able to sell it,” said Morris.
“I was even a waiter at some of San Antonio’s finest restaurants,” said Morris. There’s a glimmer in his eyes as he speaks of his antics from years gone by.
“I used to come home late at night from waiting tables and I’d go to a corner in the bedroom, pull up the carpet and stash my cash while my wife was asleep,” he said.
(A reminder for everyone who is working on pulling out old carpeting or replacing cabinetry or any other restoration work, look for those hidden gems that former occupants stashed and forgot to grab as they moved on.)
At one point in his life, Buddy was a gambler, and while he won’t talk about losing a bunch of money what he will say is, “I don’t do it anymore, I learned my lesson.”
Moving back to his love of art happened after scads of years working. “About when I was in my late 50s or early 60s, I went to work for an office supply store, I was stocking shelves and looked at all the art books as I was putting them out and I just felt inspired. So, I started copying the work in the art books. Then I started painting my own ideas,” said Morris.
His first venture out into the public with his art was simply through social media posts. “I got some good feedback from my friends, so I kept painting,” said Morris.
As luck would have it, he was visiting his hometown, enjoying a meal at Star Drug Store and the seed of an idea was planted as he spied From the Heart Gallery across the street.
After he got back to Vidor, he e-mailed samples of his work to the woman who oversaw the art collection at From the Heart Gallery. She responded by asking him to bring his work to the gallery. “I loaded up my car with a bunch of my work and headed back to Galveston,” said Morris.
“Well, she pulled all of my work out of the car and spread it out on the sidewalk in front of the gallery and pointed to pieces and said, ‘I want this one and this one and that one,’” he explained.
“My art started to sell immediately,” said Morris. “At the first sale of one of my pieces I realized, I’m a real artist now, it felt really good to have others value my work,” he added.
His current body of work moves from bright, bold colors to more subtle quiet shades. He uses strokes of paint and creates impressions of his vision for others to enjoy which include moon rises, rainy days, flowers, sailboats, marine life, and night skies lit up with the moon and stars.
Human figures sashay into some of his pieces with their features out of focus, leaving the viewer to create their own vision of the person’s face and character.
Newlyweds Angel and Laurence Wall, who have divergent ideas on art, wanted an artist to paint a scene of their wedding. “We explored all the galleries in Galveston then when we saw Buddy’s work, we both knew he was the artist for our painting,” they said.
Their wedding had been an outdoor affair at Dar Park as the light of the sun was fading and the moon’s glow was moving in. This allowed Morris to work his magic and weave in a night sky filled with stars. “We just love his painting,” said Angel Laurence
Morris has had several wives, all of whom he thinks were not happy with his rotation of jobs. Currently he has no wife and his five children are all grown up with children of their own. He plans to keep painting.
