Morris Monroe
Morris Monroe
28-05-15
For the next Arthole exhibition we welcome the brains behind Arthole, Morris Monroe, who brings his own solo show to the walls of Dalston Superstore. Ahead of tonight's Private View we caught up with Morris to find out more about his inspirations, technique and training...
Who are you and what medium do you work in?
I am Morris Monroe.
I am captured in my art.
My thoughts, my ideas, my questions and understandings. These are my hopes, my fears, my memories and meditations.
I am finding my way through life, creating a documentary of images, diary entries, visual statements, status updates, replacing text with colour, geometry and images of self. Within the limitations of this new language.
I have found a way to communicate.
I am the frequency of colour, the line, the form, the space.
I am the movement and action.
I am the image.
Who was the first artist who mesmerised young you, and what work specifically caught your eye?
Egon Schiele’s approach to the figure and expressive. J.M.W. Turner for his depiction of energy and description of movement.
What training have you received in your chosen medium, if any?
I draw my inspirations from my understanding of fine art Masters, their essays and words, resulting in contemplative and emotional expressions. I assimilate art as the fullest part of my life and with no art school training, I aim to explore my own development with the enthusiasm, drive and confidence of the great artist I am inspired by. Being prolific with my output of work which is as deeply considered as the essays and books I currently study.
What's your fave piece of your work on exhibition with ArtHole?
Duality in Space.
This piece of work asserts a contemplative approach from the viewer. It is also a piece which shows the development of my exploration of techniques and processes within the thematic continuation. It acknowledges a very masculine energy and I have tried to achieve the perfect balance between the two masculine forms. It is both the analytical and the expressive, the intuitive and the logical, the physical and non-physical. In the exhibition each individual statement within the show captures a moment, a perception. I hope that the thoughts and emotions of the viewer travel with the work through the dimensions of conceptual landscapes.
In an ideal world, what would you change about the current art world?
I would like to see it be less of an institution.
What do you aspire to?
Evolution. My fullest potential.
Tell us a secret about yourself.
I only started painting last year.
What music do you make your art to?
Silence.
Describe your working process for us...
I use drawing as a cathartic medium to express experiences which are personal as well as universal. Through my work I am exploring the discernment of life, through which I hope everyone can identify; light and darkness, positive and negative perceptions, the journey of the self, philosophies on spirituality, contemplations on reality. My approach to the two dimensions of canvas is to construct the space in a way to affect the feelings of the viewer, and connect with the higher states of sensibility. My work encourages contemplation and meditation to reveal statement and concepts which are encoded within the work. I aim to address the physical and the astral, the emotional and the vibrational, the masculine and feminine universal energies, the intuitive and a logical, expressive and analytical. I have an idea to find true harmony and balance between the workings of both.
Through psychological regression techniques I connect with my emotional memory; this guides my figurative work. For the abstract work I use a technique I have called "composition in the fifth dimension", the fifth dimension in this instance refers to the vibration of emotion. I use gesture, geometry, colour, position, movement, energy, expression, form. This is my outsider approach to the formal elements. The work speaks in a language that cannot be taught but rather is felt via understanding one’s own inner truth. It is a language that is understood intuitively.
What was the last thing that moved you to tears?
Meditation.
Join Morris tonight for the private view of new Arthole exhibition Essence Of Self at Dalston Superstore from 6pm - 10pm.
Morris Monroe