Oh Sky! Oh Earth! Oh Heroic Animal, Wretched History and Beautiful Body!
Marion Abraham's practice is an extension of her experience in the natural world. Her work carries the signifiers of bygone eras and old lands. Traditional power structures and gender roles are reimagined in Marion's work: she loves the humorous, the violent and the beautiful.
Tell us a bit about what a day may look like for you as an artist. Where are you based and what are some of the things that you do in your daily routine? Tell us about your morning rituals, your cup of tea/coffee, plants, etc!
I paint in a studio in Footscray. I start in the morning and I’m pretty good for a focused two-hour stint before I need to take a break and muck around online or go annoy a studio peer for a coffee. There is a really, really comfortable couch in my studio and I try not to sit on it too much! I love to paint fast, so I often spend an hour or so just mixing colours before I begin. That way I can just paint with a full pallet of colour and tonal options, and limit the technical decision making I need to make when I’m in the full swing of it all.
How did you start your creative practice and why? Are you self-taught, an art student, a full-time artist, etc?
I was a potter for many years. And all through that time I would look at paintings and drawings and teach myself bits of anatomy and technique on the side. Then one day I was like, “Right. I’m done here. I am going to be a painter instead”. So, I moved to Melbourne, left the kilns behind in Tasmania and cracked in!
I paint because it is a beautiful and intriguing way to tell stories, start fights, make jokes, gush beauty and question the way the world works.
Have you got a studio/creative workplace? Tell us a bit about where you create and some of the significant things that support and inspire your practice.
I have a studio at River Studios in Footscray, and I am also studying a BFA at RMIT. The studio is located in the industrial area of Footscray, a short walk from my house. Although there are quite a few artists there, it is a quiet space with a lot of concrete, steel and tin. Painting at River Studios is an exciting contrast: all these landscapes and memories of natural places coming together on canvas surrounded by the creaking old bones of the warehouse.
A big check-in point for creativity is my sister Maggie who is a composer and musician. We often touch base a couple of times a day and check-in with each other’s projects. I think it helps having someone in your art land who can say it like it is and know your work and creative ambitions intimately.
And the sky. The sky in this city is my link to the greater world and all its powers.
What are some of the ideas that you explore in your work and the mediums that you have chosen to work with?
I am very interested in power. Who has it, who’s lost it, who can be imbued with it and how I can express radical ideas around it.
After tinkering with other media, I have found myself back at paint and pencil. For now these tools are everything I need to explore my current creative agenda. I look forward to returning to sculpture one day in the future.
In an increasingly digitized world, how important is your online presence? And what are some of the things that you consider when marketing your work?
You know, don’t make work too big. Yet.
And I enjoy following all my broader interests online, rather than moving about solely in the arts sphere. Botanists, scientists, agricultural workers, conservationists. I get excited making links online with people in those fields. I think it’s important to feel connected to a variety of professions when you are an artist. And the internet is pretty great for that.
Let us know about any current/future projects – Have you got anything planned in the near future?
Busy painting, happy reading and excited scheming for the rest of this weird 2020 year. I am looking forward to COVID calming down and being able to get back out into the natural world again. Might see if there is a residency on a cliff somewhere that will take me…
View our collection of works by Marion Abraham in our Stockroom.