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Russell Morland (LURK)
Nanaimo, BC
Where are you from and where are you living now?
I’m originally from the cold hard depths of Northern England pretty close to the Scottish border in an area know as County Durham. I now live in Nanaimo on Vancouver island.
How did you discover your talent? What got you started?
My mom got me into art, she had studied art a little bit in college and went on to become a hairdresser. She had a bunch of her old sketchbooks lying around and I would trace and copy things from those books, she had lots of talent and still paints to this day.
What makes you keep innovating and pushing your craft to new heights? What’s the intrinsic driver or motivation?
I just honestly love learning new tricks, I think of it like skateboarding almost just learning that new thing. I’m hyped to create new worlds and creatures and stoke people out.
Between tattooing, painting, digital artwork etc, what’s your favourite discipline?
Painting hands down.
If you could have tea with an idol or figure of any era, who would it be? Why?
Alessandro Michelle head art director/ designer of Gucci, the man is a power house of creativity and just is in flow right now. As far as visual artists go Robert Williams must have some amazing stories.
So far, what has been your favourite highlight of your career? An achievement? A collaboration?
Getting few pages in Heavy Metal magazine and having my (now) friends David and Cliff write the stories that went with the article they were in my head about how to approach it without ever speaking to me and it was such a dope piece.
Your latest piece was very cool, what was the motivation behind it?
The commission of Ram Dass was inspired and motivated by the client, it was fun to take some of their input and be able to make it into something unique.
The wizard staff with funky colours seems to be a symbol of yours, what does that represent?
The magical Gloop staff has gotten me in trouble before, I just liked slime stuff as a kid, I was an 80s kid grew up in an era of ghostbusters and Santa Cruz skateboards, I just love that stuff. The gloop is magic and energy no matter it’s colour or where it comes from it represents free thought and energy in the universe maybe it help create things maybe it destroys them the magic all around us. I was so sick of drawing sparks and lighting bolts for magic why not rainbow gloop. If people see a double entendre in that then that’s their choose your own adventure.
You also have a lot of mouths or faces where normally a stomach would be, what’s the idea behind that?
I think it’s a duality thing, so much duality and multiple personalities in creatures, this is how I represent that.
In regards to your craft, where do you want to be in 5 or 10 years?
Same place as now, I’m happy. I guess I would love it to have an animated show for adults that’s trippy and weird without being harmful. I’d love to do more art shows the Pandemic is killing my vibe.
Define your idea of being a ‘Wize’ person in the modern world. What does that mean to you? Be as broad or specific as you’d like.
Keep your chin up and your eyes down, don’t open your multi mouths to make a sound.
What are the next projects coming down the pipeline?
Lots of commission work right now, and I’m working on a table top game with a company.
What’s your favourite flavor of Wize tea? How do you steep or consume it?
Steeped Ginger Lemon! Love that one.
Thanks for the interview! Where can our audience find out more about you?
@lurklovesyou on Instagram and Choice app.
