Dogs & DIY: Q&A with artist Jamie Morrison

I’m originally from Swansea in South Wales. I grew up there. All of my current interests and practices stem from being surrounded by skateboarding and music there as a teenager. The two seemed to go hand in hand and opened my eyes to the world around me. I’ve done lots of touring and travelling playing music in bands that started there and noting down inspiration along the way. I currently live in London and spend my days working as a freelance artist and designer. 

Ed Templeton’s imagery and versatility was a huge early influence. I started searching out his artwork after seeing the Toy Machine video, Jump Off A Building. I liked the way that he was sort of a jack of all trades in the art world. Andy Warhol was also a very early gateway drug. The art teacher in school taught us about the Pop Art movement. His screen-printed works and use of block colour was interesting and attractive. Basquiat and David Hockney are two more of my favourites also. It’s not easy to describe my own work. I use a mixture of paints and Inks, generally on paper and canvas and quite often to create impressionist portraits of important people in my life or block colour, layered scenarios. 

It’s kept me humble and broke.

It’s a collection of paintings on canvas, with imagery and ideas that aren’t always on the same coordinates of a conceptual spectrum, but have an underlying theme throughout that ties the pieces together. Or at least, I like to think so. Missing, as a title has an ambiguous element. It can be interpreted as a question or as a statement. Something/someone is missing. What are we missing?

My friend Matt Martin co-runs the gallery. I met Matt through playing music. He is a dedicated photographer and book-maker. I’m aware of Doomed because of him. It’s a great place and it’s small enough to hopefully fill up and not fear the limelight.

It would be nice if the work that I’m making makes people looking at it feel something. I don’t really mind if those feelings are negative, I just like the idea of anybody having a reaction to the work. If you come and it turns out you feeling nothing, you can at least get a free beer out it.

I have no idea. Nobody has been bold enough to be too negative directly to me as a response, but that might be happening out of earshot. Sometimes I get compliments on the colour palette I use. These things are getting made either way. It takes courage that I’m not full up with to put them on the wall and say, hey come and have a look. It’d be great if the response was positive. That would help justify what I’m putting my efforts into to but it’s by no means a driving force and I hope that never changes. 

I’m quite happy with the painting I have made of Wesley Willis. This image is also on the poster for the show. He was a really interesting person who dedicated his life to making art and music. A lot of the songs he wrote are pretty funny, but he is not a joke. 

I watched the Bruce Springsteen documentary last night and I’m also reading his autobiography. The documentary was pretty much PR for the book, but that aside, I’m getting inspired by the determination to overcome, of The Boss!

Maybe Jean Michel Basquiat.

I have this show on 31 January, and I’m currently working on arrangements for a show in Oakland, California and Austin, Texas in May and June, either side of a music tour. I haven’t got any further than that with my plans yet but I’m trying to make more art and more plans all the time.