Project Overview
Parkway Emblems | Along North, South, and East Parkway
“I love the way you can ambush people with art. They can’t stop it—they can’t un-see it.”
The city of Memphis has changed much since the year 1900, but one element has remained constant—the Parkways, the markers of the original city limits. Artist Frank Morris conceived and installed 10 distinctive emblems at the major intersections of North, South, and East Parkway. Each emblem stands 10 feet tall and is constructed of steel, iron, and brushed aluminum. The project intends to improve the aesthetics of Memphis’s oldest streets without abandoning the history that these roadways have seen as well as to form a meaningful connection to the people of the present day.
About the Artist
Frank Morris
A Memphis, TN native, Frank Morris began private training at an early age in the atelier of noted painter Paul Penczner. He went on to earn a fine arts degree with honors from The University of Memphis. He continued his Post Baccalaureate studies at the prestigious Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles, California.
His work hangs in private collections and corporate board rooms, and his paintings have been reproduced in magazines such as Newsweek and New York Magazine, where he was asked to paint luminaries such as Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, First Ladies Nancy Reagan and Rosalynn Carter, Hamilton Jordan, and the Shah of Iran. In Memphis, his official portrait of Former Mayor Dick Hackett hangs in the gallery at City Hall.
In addition to his portrait work, Frank is contracted by the US Department of the Treasury as a Master Designer for the US Mint. There, he is responsible for creating designs for multiple American circulating coins, including Congressional medals, and Presidential medals.
