Nick Morley

1. Please tell us about the work you will be showing in the 2009 E17 Art Trail?
I will be showing recent work and some older pieces. Recently I have been making drawings and paintings in my studio at Inky Cuttlefish. I have been drawn to images of nature for the first time in my work. These are an extension of a series I did a few years ago of portraits of hunters with their kills. I am interested in man's struggle to find a place in this world, both individually and collectively. What is nature and what is man's place in it? These are questions that have a resonance across all cultures and throughout history.

2. Could you have done this work anywhere, or is it specific to E17? Did you respond to this year’s Art Trail theme ‘At Home’?
It's not specific to E17 but my studio at Inky Cuttlefish is the first proper studio I've had since 1999. Since then I've worked at East London Printmakers in Hackney making etchings and linocuts but now I've also got my own space I've been able to return to painting. Having a space in which I can feel at ease and able to experiment freely has been invaluable and my work has evolved in the year or so I've been there.

3. Have you participated in the E17 Art Trail before?
No

4. How does your work this year relate to your previous artistic practice?
I've always been interested in human behaviour. For the last ten years my work has been about man's struggle for meaning in this world. I've made series of portraits of wrestlers, amateur astronauts and bearded men. The work I'm making now is more challenging and less easy to define but has evolved from the earlier series.

5. What challenges (if any) do you face in realising this work?
I face an internal struggle every day! Making art is not easy. It is like exposing a part of yourself and asking the world to judge it, so it takes a lot of guts not to just make something pretty.

6. Who is this work for?
Whoever can afford it, like everything in life.

7. As well as being an artist what else do you do?
I write a blog about linocuts. And I illustrate books and things. I recently did a cover for a Faber and Faber book of poems by W B Yeats and my first illustration for the Times two weeks ago!

8. What is your favourite place in E17?
Rodi's Cafe, which is just opposite Inky Cuttlefish. It's still got its original fittings and has been run by the same family since 1925. The service is amazing. They always ask you if you want salt and pepper on your sandwich. And you can have your coffee 'strong or not so strong'. Brilliant.

website http://www.nickmorley.co.uk/
shop http://www.linocutboy.etsy.com/%20
myspace http://www.myspace.com/nickmorley%20
blog http://linocutboy.blogspot.com/