Acrylic Painting
Billie Morris
Billie Morris is a multidisciplinary artist living and working in Naarm/Melbourne and is creating in an attempt to be comfortable in the absurdity of living inside a body.
Artist Profile
Billie Morris (she/her) is a multidisciplinary artist living and working in Naarm/Melbourne, Australia Creating in an attempt to be comfortable in the absurdity of living inside a body. Her work predominantly portrays humans and attempts to blur the lines of gender and beauty conformity. Self documentation is an important facet of her work, extending to a somewhat obsessive collection of items; tickets, receipts, hand written notes and sometimes literal trash. Film and literature are a constant influence and hints of homages can be found throughout her subject matter.
In a perpetual state of self doubt and intense enthusiasm she aims to steadily develop her practise and understand her own, and others, inner worlds.
Artist Interview
What medium do you work with, and why have you chosen them?
I honestly try and incorporate as many as possible and it’s an issue. I absolutely love painting with oils but I work in a space that isn’t very well ventilated and I get verrrry messy. I’ve stained many rental carpets with oils and thinners.<p> I’m also impatient, impulsive, often chaotic in my workspace. Constantly I need to reign myself in, to stop trialling new mediums and buying endless supplies when sad and lonely older work is sitting there waiting for me to finish it.<p> I am attracted to layering quickly, without waiting for drying times and allowing accidents (mistakes) to occur which often lead to new ideas or techniques so I mostly use acrylic, aerosols, inks etc. I like to attempt new, unfamiliar processes within this to force a slower pace as well.<p> As well as oil paint, I work with textiles and film mediums. I’ve been making videos since my first digi cam in the early 2000s and I started printing on fabric about a year and a half ago when I was broke and bored with my clothes.
How does your artwork get from initial concept to exhibition stage?
From my piles of scrap papers and books and folders of images and weird thoughts in my head. I’m an obsessive note taker and write down any phrase that is conducive to an interesting feeling for me. Could be from a podcast or person on the train. They often become titles of paintings.<p> The last things I wrote down were actually train quotes;<br> “If he riz me now it’s over”<br> “All my friends are white guys”<p><p> The latter is in the works as a painting idea.
Can you tell us a little more about your creative working environment/studio?
I work from home in a thick brick shed. It’s dark and crumbly but has beautiful layers of dirty painted walls and a concrete floor with big barn style doors I can open up on warm days. It’s an amazing old rental house that’s half falling apart, we got really lucky to snatch it up during Covid. My housemates put up with a lot of my mess and canvases everywhere but they do get art up on the walls too.
Career Highlights
- Selling my first paintings during Covid lockdown in 2019/2020
- My first solo exhibition in May this year
- Starting work in disability support and balancing my life between creativity and community
