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Melissa Morton

Artist's Interview

How long have you been creating?: When haven't I been creating? I was never a big fan of dolls or most toys. My diversions of choice were crayons and paint if I didn't have a book in my hands.

What is your medium of choice?: At the moment, acrylics and block printing. I like the tactility of carving a block. I also draw a lot.

What are your motivations for creating?: I enjoy it. Not terribly deep, I know but that's pretty much it.

What other artists and movements inform your work?: Uhmmmm, I know which artists I like the most. Munch, Vermeer, Matisse, Miro, Klimt, As for movements I like the Pre-Raphaelites. I also really like Medieval art as well as art from ancient cultures.

What do you find stimulating right now? How does this influence your creative process?: Color and line. I like arresting color but I also like the counterpoint you can achieve with color. An example is my Pyracantha bush. The berries are intense and vibrant but they are balanced and anchored by the dark green of the leaves. I could stare at it for hours. As for line, I tend to break everything down into a series of lines. I love the movement of a line - visible or implied. You follow it with your eye. It takes you somewhere. Whether it resolves itself into an image or not, it has motion. I don't like lines that stop. I like lines that move you back along the path it has taken you or launches you into space. I have spent a lot of my life looking at bare tree branches against the sky. Though my work tends to focus on the line with the color being secondary, my eye is attracted to both equally.

Read anything good lately?: The Book of Bunny Suicides by Andy Riley. It is a book of cartoons. "Little Fluffy Rabbits Who Just Don't Want To Live Anymore" is what it says on the cover and that pretty much sums it up. I loved it.

I'm intrigued by your "childhood games" series--tell us a little about it.: Well, that plays back into the lines thing. Hopscotch just resolved itself in my head one day as a completed image . Hopscotch as a game is a simple concept with simple lines. I found that appealing. "Marbles" just seemed to naturally follow .

What would you like your fellow EBSQ artists and collectors to know about you and or your work?: I create what pleases me. I want the process to be something that I enjoy. I want the experience to be something that becomes almost a compulsion. I want it to be something that I am excited about and can't wait to get back to if I have to leave it. When a work is complete, I want to enjoy looking at it. I can not share the pleasure I had in creating it but if people who see the piece enjoy it, then that is something good that can be shared.