With a certainty that hinges on instinct, Lily Mortensen works from the subconscious alone. The painter and National Art School graduate emigrates colour on unstretched canvas, layered with lashings of spray paint and vinyl emulsion. Oil and watercolours in the gradient of a watermelon are constant throughlines in her work. She cites influence from cityscapes, Keiichi Tanaami and Nicholas Koshkosh — but her transference of materials is ubiquitously her own.
Her visual landscapes are striking, wearing the balance between careful composition and crudeness. Mortensen says, ‘One mark with the right feeling is better than ten million hours perfecting some slight detail.’ She loves the colour of emulsion and spray paint when dissipating it from one colour to another. When applied, it stipples out into a different form. These collisions are found across her entire body of work, and are intended to draw the viewer closer in a dead heat. What truly are they observing? There are intricacies in Mortensen’s work that make the observer question the methods and time it takes for someone to do something. She operates by this code, saying, ‘Holding anything like a pen in your hand — it puts it into specifics. Whereas if you hold it, you’re holding it as a vessel without limiting yourself to a specific mindset.’
Music too, has a place in forming her oeuvre. She likes a kaleidoscope of everything. There’s something good in everything in her library, from psych trance and classical to Metallica. She loves Elliot Smith and plays his music instead of listening to it. The kinesthetic synergy is what makes her art come to life —responding to other art in order to create her own.
One of her earliest works, ‘Pasteurised Meat’ came from the compulsion to draw everything in the back of Biology class. She understood the backend of art, and she remained doggedly uninterested at school and was otherwise undisciplined (unless it was what she liked). That’s when she knew that the most important part of doing something is doing it for them. With that mentality on lock, she faces the horizon without reservation. One step at a time. Do not think too far ahead.
Mortensen appreciates what she has in the present, just as dearly as she held onto her Art Film classes at National Art School. It was there that she embarked on making her passion a lived reality, legitimising art as a career.
"I still believe that the most important work a writer can do is to read."
~ Bri Lee
"Holding anything like a pen in your hand — it puts it into specifics. Whereas if you hold it, you’re holding it as a vessel without limiting yourself to a specific mindset."
~ Lily Mortensen
Mortensen is also a juggler. This means she supports herself through a myriad of means — balancing odd jobs, routine and interning with deftness. When the time comes to enter the studio, she does not waste a second on doubt or fatigue. If Mortensen doesn’t enjoy spending time there at the moment, she’ll offer herself a break by going outside or playing guitar. At the time of our conversation she was interning at Sydney Opera House. In between lapses during the day, she sketches whatever falls in her line of vision. I’ve seen sketches of Bennelong restaurant and the tips of the Opera House’s signature curvature rendered in fineliner ink with an otherworldly eye. Everything Mortensen apprehends becomes a translation of the unreal.
When I probe for kernels of wisdom, she confesses her best piece of advice that her father had offered her: You can’t sell a secret. Mortensen says, “You can be the best at what you do — but if you don’t go out there and say, ‘I’m here’ you’re never going to get it. No one will know what you do and the tree will be felled. Will it really recover if no one knows? You shouldn’t be afraid of your work. You have to step up and do it yourself. Take the initiative and have the discipline.“ To further yourself means you have to enjoy art, make art and apply to things — and Mortensen is unafraid to vault into a future of doing all three.
"If you're doing work that you feel is important, it will be impossible to have everybody like you."
~ Bri Lee
“You can be the best at what you do — but if you don’t go out there and say, ‘I'm here’ you’re never going to get it. No one will know what you do and the tree will be felled. Will it really recover if no one knows? You shouldn’t be afraid of your work. You have to step up and do it yourself. Take the initiative and have the discipline.“
~ Lily Mortensen
As for her process, it starts in layers. There are various materials Mortensen utilises — from flash emulsion and spray paint and collaging — they all add layers onto the situation. She makes a loose-jotted plan with soft pastels, and consults her collection of past sketchbooks. These visual diaries help her move beyond her past, archiving processes and inventive streaks she’s carried over the years. She became entranced with flash emulsion when she found it in an art store. It was there when Mortensen learnt it wasn’t oily but acrylic based, a lot more pigmented with the texture of goopy slime. To play with the texture properly, she enlists the help of a big brush. She lets it dry and then returns to pretty up the details. She engages with pointillism: perceptivity and composition become different beasts when you come closer with your work.
With colour, Mortensen is like a fly to a lamp. Her investment in material opens up avenues to make paintings and for that process to be as freeing as the first time. In her work, the transference of palette tones also shifts from colour application to canvas. She stains unprimed canvas by hand, soaking it with a binding medium. Mortensen prefers to work in layers where you can see the underpainting and notice the gradients after. The feeling is what grounds her practice and sets her free.
Profile by Karen Leong
Photography by Maya Pratt
