Transporting viewers and readers to new realms of imagination is Dean Morrissey’s creative calling. Inspired by a belief that “a story never really ends,” he has created paintings and books that have achieved continual success. The perennial best seller Ship of Dreams has received numerous accolades including being named one of 1994’s ten best illustrated children’s books by The New York Times and was chosen as the theme for the internationally famous Saks Fifth Avenue Christmas windows. His 1997 book, The Great Kettles, won a Gold Medal from The Society of Illustrators.

Morrissey came to combine the richly real with the colorfully fantastic early, by enjoying both cartoons and comic books as well as the art of Rembrandt and N.C. Weyth. Although he began drawing at an early age, Morrissey did not feel secure enough in his artistic skills to start painting full-time until the late 1970s. Now the artist has more than a hundred memorable covers for more than a dozen book publishers of science fiction and fantasy to his credit.

Finally, calling upon his skills as an artist and writer, Morrissey decided to weave the threads of reality, imagination, enchantment, and adventure to create a tale at once familiar and fantastic -- Ship of Dreams. “By combining diverse elements -- light, shadow, color, and human warmth -- I try to create an accessible universe,” he says. His next voyage into the realm of musing, dreaming, wishing, and, perhaps, remembering, is the The Christmas Ship which includes The Magic Door, the subject of the artist’s first limited edition for The Greenwich Workshop.

Eastern Massachusetts

Published by
The Greenwich Workshop
since 2000

Preferred medium: oil

The Magic Door

“When I stand at my easel, I try to visualize it as a window on the world. A window with a unique view. Within the process of creating that view lies all of the joy, frustration, silliness, absurdity, and fulfillment of being an artist. I hope you enjoy the view.”

Fantasy