Local artists featured in Frankfort

“Eagle Watching Over Lake Beshear” was submitted by Josh Morgan. “I am fortunate to share my love of photography with my father, Alan,” said Morgan. “Through photography, our relationship has grown into my most valued adult friendship as we challenge each other toward greater creative accomplishments--many days, one can find us cruising the banks of Lake Beshear in our old pontoon boat in search of opportunity and inspiration.”

Photography first piqued Morgan’s interest during an assignment for work. “As a Hopkins County native, two of my earliest hobbies were video games and hunting,” he said. “In 2011, a work project put a DSLR camera in my hands for the first time--I was intrigued by the technical aspects of digitally capturing an image, and later discovered that two of my past interests, hunting and video games, could merge and evolve within the medium of digital photography.”

While he tends to focus on wildlife and landscape photography, Morgan also enjoys “candid street photography,” and in 2020, “embarked on fine art print and canvas making” with his dad. “This has proven to be yet another rewarding opportunity that photography has brought to my life,” he explained. “Josh Morgan Photography specializes in archival-grade printmaking, and hand-stretched canvases--and via the business of printing, I am able to collaborate with other creatives in helping bring their work into two-dimensional existence, restore and preserve family heirlooms, as well as share my own images through print.”

As for Eagle Watching Over Lake Beshear, “It is one of many bald eagle images I’ve captured over the years,” Morgan said. “Proximity has allowed me to observe and track the members of this eagle family over the last five years.”

“What at one time may have been seen as a once-in-a-lifetime sighting is now a near-weekly occurrence for those of us blessed enough to live in the little slice of heaven we call Dawson Springs, Kentucky,” he concluded.

For the better part of a decade, Jason Jones has focused on wildlife and landscape photography. “As a native Dawsonian, that concentration area changed at 10:32 p.m. on December 10, 2021, when an EF-4 tornado decimated my hometown,” Jones said. “My mission to preserve the tornado’s aftermath and Dawson Springs’ rebuilding efforts in a historical account of photographs began that night with my foray into the darkness to assess the damage.”

He has spent the past 13 months photographing the destruction, cleanup, and reconstruction of Dawson Springs and the other surrounding cities impacted by the storm, which is how he was presented with the opportunity to photograph “A Park in the Path,” taken just days after the tornado where the Dawson Springs City Pool was once located. “I have donated my 69-page illustration of the tornado’s destruction to the Dawson Springs Museum & Art Center and to the Dawson Springs Branch Library,” he said. “The book contains over 300 photographs, including A Park in the Path.”

“A private donor from the DSHS Class of 1992 also recently purchased the book and shipped it to the Library Media Center of the Dawson Springs Independent School District for the students to use as a reference,” he added.

The Spring Exhibition 2023 will be on display throughout the main halls of the capitol building in Frankfort through July 31. “The Beshears believe the Capitol, as the people’s house, is the best place to highlight Kentuckians’ voices as represented through art,” said the Beshear administration in a press release. “This art exhibit is by Kentuckians and for Kentuckians.”

If you can’t make it to Frankfort to view the photographs in person, you can peruse the collection online by visiting the Team Kentucky Digital Art Gallery at https://governor.ky.gov/team-kentucky-gallery.