Paintings such as You Meet Those You Love in Heaven, with its school of silvery herring sweeping across the surface in great waves, betrays an Ab Ex feeling of space, light and motion, while the neat row of pickled herring jars along the bottom indicates a Pop sensibility. In Piranha, a single fish occupying nearly the entire lower portion of the large canvas could have been rendered only by an artist conversant with the ideals of Minimalism. The lovingly painted creature with a glowing red underbelly and glittering fins conveys a portrait-like expressivity.

Von Morisse's fish may be thinly disguised stand-ins for human beings. His compositions could refer to human interaction. But sometimes a beautifully painted fish is just a beautifully painted fish.