Artist Jim Morphesis has decided not to...

Artist Jim Morphesis has decided not to sell his “Winged Figure” painting to the John Wayne Airport Arts Commission for exhibition at the airport’s new terminal. A poster commemorating the new terminal, set to be dedicated this week, was to have been produced from the Icarus-themed painting and another plan called for the painting’s purchase by the arts commission. But the poster plan was scrapped after a weeklong controversy involving objections to the picture’s nudity, bureaucratic snafus and concerns about freedom of expression, all of which proved too much for Morphesis. “I just don’t want my work associated with the John Wayne Airport any longer,” he said Tuesday. The painting is being held at the Laguna Art Museum, where it may be exhibited, Morphesis said.