Lines are important to any artist - whether they're beginning a rough sketch, a quick outline of an idea, or creating an artwork of great detail, lines play an important and integral part of a piece, expressing passion, quietness, solitude, or great emotion. Such lines take part in Lisa Murphy's works giving life to her own poetry and voice in each piece she shares. I can't help notice a certain lulling or movement in her webby lines that give the impression of being immersed and wrapped up in emotion, as if her women were sirens crooning and beckoning us to join their inky melancholic worlds, ignoring the fact if we are comfortable doing so or not.
But we end up taking the irresistible plunge into the depths anyway...
There is a gentle sensuality and a delicate, fragile beauty as well as a rawness in Lisa's art that reaches out and resonates with our personal world, and I daresay, vulnerability; sometimes even drowning us unforgivingly in the intricate and emotive complexity that her work offers us.
Lisa shares with us her personal reasons for creating certain artworks, why she can't part with her artwork Solace, her affinity with birds and why she's never boarded a plane before.
What medium do you usually work with?
My favourite and most preferred medium is ink with a dipping nib. I also enjoy blending graphite with ink. I dabble and experiment with other mediums but always come back to ink.
How long have you been drawing, painting?
I have been drawing for as long as i can remember. I still have the very first paint set I used as a child, a small tin, the lid of which reads, “The Little Artist”. It is one of my most treasured items.
Tell us about your artistic vision, the message you express through your work. Your purpose to create the work you create.
My artistic vision, broadly speaking, is to be able to capture an emotion and transfer it onto paper in a way that, hopefully, others connect to and feel. Drawing, for me, is a solitary and personal experience and as such, I don’t draw with the purpose of sending out a message. I aim to keep my finished works ambiguous, allowing the viewer to interpret it in a way that is relevant and personal to them. It is along these lines that I also choose the titles, not wanting to influence, too heavily, the viewer’s own interpretation.
Where do you draw inspiration from?
I find inspiration in almost everything that surrounds me. Music, books, films, nature, poetry, conversation and so on. Inspiration, like imagination, should be limitless. In the rendering of the drawing itself, I am inspired by many artists for many different reasons, be it their particular lines, movement, expressionism, raw honesty, beauty, romanticism…etc There are too many artists to name but i can list Schiele, Beardsley, Klimt , Durer and Waterhouse as the most influential. I am also very heavily influenced by melancholia in all it’s forms. I find myself somewhat captivated by the deep and rich beauty that lays within this dark emotion, it feeds my imagination constantly.
Pick up to three artworks that are most meaningful/personal to you.
 |
|
Pick one artwork you’d like to talk about more in depth, it can be one of your personal favorites.
This particular drawing is titled, “Solace” and is a personal favourite, simply because, when I look into it, I feel a deep connection with it and with what it was that I was hoping to convey, that being, the sense of comfort, of feeling content and safe, being as one with another. It was really the overwhelming and powerful sense of LOVE, that I wanted to capture and I feel I achieved it with this one. It is one drawing that I can’t bring myself to part with.
|
Tell us something about you we don’t know, maybe something quirky or awkward or unique – something that makes you who you are.
I have this great affinity with birds and yet, I have a fear of flying and have never set foot in a plane. The irony of this is not lost on me :-)
Is there anything you’d like to tell other artists and people reading this? Any words of inspiration to encourage or stimulate creativity in society?
I am certainly not one to offer advice to others, but the advice that I always give to myself and try to adhere to, is this. Stay true to yourself, I know it is cliche, but i feel, it keeps art meaningful, and hence, enjoyable to create. Draw the things that make YOU happy and not what you feel others expect or want you to draw. Never be afraid to draw what lays within your darker recesses, openly express and explore all the opportunities that your imagination offers you, allowing you to grow artistically and not become stagnant. The only words of inspiration i can offer to encourage creativity is simply, DRAW…..just draw, pick up and pencil and draw :-) I can’t imagine life without drawing.
More works by Lisa Murphy that caught my eye:
To view and follow Lisa's work, go to:
