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Street art is a public museum that is open to everyone and requires no invitation. In Los Angeles, Morley’s work is scattered across walls, lampposts, billboards, electrical boxes, bus stops and construction sites. Creating street art since 2011, Morley specializes in bold typographic posters. He has over 40,000 followers on Instagram, and over 13,000 likes on Facebook.
The first time I met Morley, he was wearing a black t-shirt, glasses, jeans and I recognized him from his own depiction in his artwork but I wasn’t 100% sure who he was...until he played his documentary, “Morley: Vicariously” for our class at Woodbury University. I was instantly moved by the simplicity and meaning of the artwork he presented. Short, simple, and quick is the conceptual idea of his work that also somehow manages to reach people on a deep emotional level. |
Can you describe yourself and your art?
"My name is Morley. I’m a Los Angeles-based street artist and primarily I work with large, text-based pieces of art that I create and wheatpaste them in public places."
What do you hope people will take away from your art?
"In a perfect world - my hope would be that every person that passes something I've done would feel like the poster was about their unique and specific struggle. That somehow the poster was meant for them and them alone and it would provide a small bit of hope to their day."
"My name is Morley. I’m a Los Angeles-based street artist and primarily I work with large, text-based pieces of art that I create and wheatpaste them in public places."
What do you hope people will take away from your art?
"In a perfect world - my hope would be that every person that passes something I've done would feel like the poster was about their unique and specific struggle. That somehow the poster was meant for them and them alone and it would provide a small bit of hope to their day."
"Providing the sense that my art was just for that one person - but having hundreds or thousands of people each individually feel that way would be amazing."
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What are the best/worst things about creating art on the street?
"It’s actually a bit of the same thing… being able to be creatively expressive without asking permission is hugely freeing and immensely gratifying. At the same time you then get to make every artistic mistake in front of people and there’s no one else to blame. I sort of became an artist by accident. I didn’t think my 'hobby' would lead to anything and so since day one I’ve navigated this whole thing a bit like Mr. Magoo so a lot of my good fortune has been blind luck- I mean that both from a career standpoint and from a more tactile artistic one. Discovering what wheatpaste to use, how to print my stuff, how to avoid getting arrested, what the unspoken rules of the scene are- all that stuff was stuff you learn by doing. No one can really teach you and learning them can be humbling." Is there an unspoken code among street artists? "Yes, as I mentioned before there’s a lot of stuff that you pick up on pretty early on in this game. Primarily it’s about respecting other artists. For me though, I try and respect the city as well- I post primarily surfaces that won’t do much (if any) damage to a location- temporary construction walls, the wood of a boarded up building, those gray power boxes, etc." |
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“I never wanted a positive message to be conveyed in a destructive way that would muddy what I was trying to communicate.”
How has social media influenced your art?
"When I started I had no idea what people thought of my work. I had no way of getting feedback. Once I started uploading my work to social media pages I discovered that my stuff was actually connecting with people. The other thing it offers is lifespan. A piece I put up might last a few days in the wild but the photo I take lasts forever online. Sometimes it can be annoying actually- as I mentioned when you make a mistake, people can snap a photo that might haunt you for a while. There are pieces that I don’t really like of mine that I will still see every now and again on Instagram and wonder, 'I did that seven years ago, why won’t it go away?'"
"When I started I had no idea what people thought of my work. I had no way of getting feedback. Once I started uploading my work to social media pages I discovered that my stuff was actually connecting with people. The other thing it offers is lifespan. A piece I put up might last a few days in the wild but the photo I take lasts forever online. Sometimes it can be annoying actually- as I mentioned when you make a mistake, people can snap a photo that might haunt you for a while. There are pieces that I don’t really like of mine that I will still see every now and again on Instagram and wonder, 'I did that seven years ago, why won’t it go away?'"
If you could draw on any wall anywhere in the world, where would it be and why?
"Clearly, this is a fantasy but if I could do anything- I would love to have the world’s longest poem that’s pasted across the Great Wall of China. Something that you would need to travel the entire span of the wall to read in its entirety. I love the idea of a canvas that can be seen from low space orbit."
Regarding the quotes that you use, are they inspired by real relationships? And if so, how do they affect your relationships?
"My quotes all come from me- either things that if I was walking down the street would be moved by or find some measure of comfort in, or things that I wish my loved ones might appreciate. There have at times created friction if they are too confessional but for the most part, people understand that what might feel personal and specific to one person can be powerful when shared with a world full of people thinking that they are the only ones going through something. To discover that someone else in the world around you knows how you feel can be really profound. This is why I include the image of myself in a lot of my artwork. I want people to know that they aren’t alone, that another person- not a logo or a brand- but an glamorous person just like them knows what they’re going through."
"Clearly, this is a fantasy but if I could do anything- I would love to have the world’s longest poem that’s pasted across the Great Wall of China. Something that you would need to travel the entire span of the wall to read in its entirety. I love the idea of a canvas that can be seen from low space orbit."
Regarding the quotes that you use, are they inspired by real relationships? And if so, how do they affect your relationships?
"My quotes all come from me- either things that if I was walking down the street would be moved by or find some measure of comfort in, or things that I wish my loved ones might appreciate. There have at times created friction if they are too confessional but for the most part, people understand that what might feel personal and specific to one person can be powerful when shared with a world full of people thinking that they are the only ones going through something. To discover that someone else in the world around you knows how you feel can be really profound. This is why I include the image of myself in a lot of my artwork. I want people to know that they aren’t alone, that another person- not a logo or a brand- but an glamorous person just like them knows what they’re going through."
"I wanted there to be a relationship that would feel something like a friendship between myself and whoever stumbled over something I’ve done and appreciated the sentiment."
I read somewhere that you started as a screenwriter. How do movies and screenplays influence your work?
Language and words are the biggest part of what I do. The use of language and the fact that we all recognize symbols that form words and these words put together form thoughts of such complex and emotional nature is endlessly fascinating to me. Seeing someone infuse those words with life is how we discover how they are capable of affecting us. In life we discover this naturally- the first person who says they love you, the first person that breaks your heart- the joy of good news and the tragedy of bad news. The theater of life I suppose. Film is a great medium to mimic this and control it for our own edification.
When it’s good it’s perhaps the most profound medium because it can utilize all the other art forms. When it’s bad it’s a the worst because of not only the wasted potential of the medium but because it costs so much damn money to make one that could have made a million smaller pieces of great art. Instead we got “Hot Pursuit” (no offense to any Reese Witherspoon fans).
How has your childhood influence you and your art?
"I think our childhood is kind of the basis for everything that we become as adults. All of our neurosis and insecurities can all be traced back there. I’d say that for me there was a fair amount of a need to be heard, to feel that the world around me was paying attention to me. Couple that with a distaste for authority and you have the makings of a street artist. My mother was a marriage and family therapist so the more introspective aspects of what I do can probably be traced to the self-reflection that my family got pretty good at."
Language and words are the biggest part of what I do. The use of language and the fact that we all recognize symbols that form words and these words put together form thoughts of such complex and emotional nature is endlessly fascinating to me. Seeing someone infuse those words with life is how we discover how they are capable of affecting us. In life we discover this naturally- the first person who says they love you, the first person that breaks your heart- the joy of good news and the tragedy of bad news. The theater of life I suppose. Film is a great medium to mimic this and control it for our own edification.
When it’s good it’s perhaps the most profound medium because it can utilize all the other art forms. When it’s bad it’s a the worst because of not only the wasted potential of the medium but because it costs so much damn money to make one that could have made a million smaller pieces of great art. Instead we got “Hot Pursuit” (no offense to any Reese Witherspoon fans).
How has your childhood influence you and your art?
"I think our childhood is kind of the basis for everything that we become as adults. All of our neurosis and insecurities can all be traced back there. I’d say that for me there was a fair amount of a need to be heard, to feel that the world around me was paying attention to me. Couple that with a distaste for authority and you have the makings of a street artist. My mother was a marriage and family therapist so the more introspective aspects of what I do can probably be traced to the self-reflection that my family got pretty good at."
Any advice for young artists who are just starting out?
"Embrace what makes you distinctive. We all want to be cool- but cool is boring and easily forgotten. It's 'uncool' to celebrate your frailty, to raise your weak humanity like a flag and carry it into battle."
"Embrace what makes you distinctive. We all want to be cool- but cool is boring and easily forgotten. It's 'uncool' to celebrate your frailty, to raise your weak humanity like a flag and carry it into battle."
"The great thing is, even if you lose the battle- no one will forget the bravery it takes to enter the fray as you are, without a justification or an apology. And really- isn't that the kind of glory we all want to be remembered for?"
To visit Morley's latest works, go here.
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