Artist Aaron Morse created two paintings for Frank G. Bonelli Regional Park's headquarters office that allude to outdoor themes and activities, including birdwatching, fishing, swimming, boating, horseback riding, and hiking. The painting, Swimmer's Beach, shows people recreating at the lake beach. Puddingstone Reservoir and views of Mt. San Antonio inspired the landscape painting. Rendered in a color-block style reminiscent of a vintage travel poster, figures in color silhouette gesture in friendly ways while flying birds give a sense of motion. The painting is loosely adapted to California Impressionism. As in much of his work, Morse shows a glimpse of a larger world where many things happen simultaneously.

Aaron Morse was born in 1974 in Tucson, Arizona, and lives and works in Los Angeles. He received his BFA in 1996 from the University of Arizona, Tucson, and MFA in 1998 from the University of Cincinnati, OH. His work is included in the collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; and the Museum of Modern Art, New York and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; among others. Solo exhibitions include those at ACME., Los Angeles (2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014 and 2016); Guild and Greyshkul, New York (2006, 2008); and the Hammer Museum of Art, University of California, Los Angeles (2008). Morse’s work has also been included in group exhibitions at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art (2010 and 2016); the Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston (2008); the Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley, California (2004); the Weatherspoon Art Museum, University of North Carolina, Greensboro (2004 and 2012); and the Hammer Museum of Art, University of California, Los Angeles (2003). Morse is as influenced by the geography, history, and mythology of the Southwest as he is by the language of advertising, collage, and comics. His compositions combine all these elements in colorful and complex layered artworks akin to epic illustrations and surreal, alternate worlds where time is often ambiguous. To learn more, visit: https://www.aaronmorse.com/