Artist hopes passion inspires quest to win $100,000 prize

EVERYTHING from a cheeky footy supporter to a euphoric bus trip home has inspired Glenn Morgan to create little sporting worlds of his own. The Warrnambool artist has been short-listed along with 13 other finalists for the Basil Sellers Art Prize, a $100,000 award for artwork based on a sporting theme.The Geelong supporter plans to create a diorama depicting his team's triumphant bus trip back to its home city after clinching the premiership flag in the 2007 grand final.``It's a unique art prize in that, firstly, it's worth so much and, secondly, that it is solely focused on sport as its subject matter,'' he said. ``I held a retrospective show at the Warrnambool Art Gallery a couple of years ago and the place was chock-full of family groups. It was amazing, the kids absolutely loved the hands-on nature of the dioramas because it's so different to our usual concept of art which is to look but not interact.''Immigration, war, poverty, sex, death and family have all been themes Morgan has rendered in his work but his light-hearted sporting dioramas have been his focus in recent times. The TAFE art teacher has also created a diorama of Steve Waugh's last Test match for Australia in 2004 and one of jovial supporters at a football match at Kardinia Park.``There's something wonderful about how much fun supporters have at the footy in Australia compared to how seriously they take sports like soccer overseas, so that's something I wanted to capture,'' Morgan said.