Morin, Paula 1945- (Paula Marie Yvette Morin)

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Morin, Paula 1945- (Paula Marie Yvette Morin)

PERSONAL:

Born February 4, 1945, in Hollywood, CA; daughter of Charles Eugene Robert Anthony (a radio broadcasting executive) and Mary Elsa Morin; married Robert C. McCamey, 1970 (divorced, 1974); children: Mark Richard McCamey, Ian Eugene McCamey. Education: Southern Oregon University, B.A. (magna cum laude), 1978; Southern Oregon University and University of Washington, certificate, 1990. Religion: Roman Catholic.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Spokane, WA. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Artist, photographer, historian, and oral historian. Oregon Folk Arts, Oregon Art Community, Salem, field researcher, 1979; N.W. Exposure Photography, Inc., Ashland, OR, founding director, 1979; Circle Sky Productions, Talent, OR, photographer and oral historian, 1979-81; University of Montana, Missoula, photographer, 1981-82; Heritage Photo Works, LLC, Hamilton, MT, and Prescott, AZ, owner and photographer, 1991-96; Prescott College, Prescott, adjunct faculty member, 1993; Paula Morin Photo Art and Looking Glass Images, Missoula, artist and photographer, 1997. Arts consultant, Montana Arts Council, 1999.

Exhibitions: Works included in permanent collections at Casa Grande Museum, AZ, Mt. Angel Abbey, OR, Buffalo Bill Historical Center, WY, 1999, and Monastery of the Ascension, ID, 1999. Also artist for the traveling exhibit "Honest Horses: A Profile of the Wild Horse in Nevada's Great Basin," 2000.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Grant for professional development, Arizona Commission on Arts, 1993; Rural Community Arts Assistance Grant, National Endowment for the Arts and U.S. Forest Service Partnership, 1999.

WRITINGS:

Honest Horses: Wild Horses in the Great Basin, University of Nevada Press (Reno, NV), 2006.

SIDELIGHTS:

Paula Morin is a photographer, artist, and oral historian whose works are included in permanent collections in Idaho, Nevada, Washington, and Wyoming. Born in Hollywood, California, and raised in San Francisco, Morin studied art in college and art history and cultural anthropology in graduate school. She has since pursued a career in art photography.

Morin combines her long-abiding love for horses with her skills as an oral historian and artist/photographer in Honest Horses: Wild Horses in the Great Basin. For this work, which features giclée prints made from hand-painted black-and-white photographs, Morin conducted extensive research over a ten-year period and received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and the U.S. Forest Service. Selections from the original works of art have appeared in numerous gallery showings. As cited in a review on the Nevada Agricultural Foundation Web site, Morin explains, "I have tried to present an arena in which the realm of wild horses can be discussed by the people who know them best, in their own words and on their own terms." Morin interviewed and recorded narratives of sixty-two individuals in a wide array of relationships to the wild mustangs of the Great Basin, from government Bureau of Land Management representatives to cowboys, veterinarians, and poets. Her research into the history and condition of the mustang revealed that it is not native to America but that its numbers have grown to exceed their environment's ability to sustain all of the animals productively. She reaches the conclusion, shared by many of her interviewees, that controlling the population is necessary both for the horses' welfare and for the survival of the Great Basin habitat in which they roam. Colleen Mondor, in a review for Booklist, called Honest Horses "an excellent and essential primer on the need for truly aiding wild horses." In the review on the Nevada Agricultural Foundation Web site, the book was declared "highly recommended, … one of the most comprehensive books about the animals and one that most realistically portrays them." The review also noted that Morin covers "history, population data, genetics, impact on habitat, old time mustanging and … their value to ranchers as saddle horses." Patrick Hearty, reviewing the book for the Utah Historical Quarterly, considered "the best parts" to be "the treatises on Great Basin ecology and natural history, and the stories of wild horse hunting and mustanging in the old days." Corinne H. Smith, writing for the Web site Rambles, found that "horse history, captivating stories and personal experiences abound as the interviewees speak" and stated that the work is "valuable reading for all of us here in the United States."