Jealous will be at The London Original Print Fair from today at the Royal Academy,Piccadilly.
Ahead of the fair Benjamin Murphy spoke to Mick Rooney RA - His print All at Sea will be available at the Jealous stand.
All at Sea by Mick Rooney
BM - For those that might not know, please explain who you are and what you do.
MR - I am Mick Rooney. I paint pictures. They are I hope, poems celebrating aspects of our inner and outer selves.
BM - Have you always been so creative?
MR – I know no other world. I was led from birth, like a shot-down pilot, over hill and dale; passed on to the visual arts resistance fighters to sanctuary and freedom!
BM – Your paintings are mainly figurative, are they of anyone in particular?
MR - These eponymous figures which are the central cyphers in my paintings probably represent "the arrived" totality of a type.
Look at any figurative artists' "people" world-El Greco, Rubens, Piero Della Francesca, Otto Dix, Kathe Kolwitz - they are instantly identified with their creators- portraits of all humanity.
BM – You seem to utilize a lot of very traditional techniques, etching and tapestry for example. Have you ever used anything more contemporary like digital software to create works, and what are your opinions on artists who only use digital?
MR - All medium is of use to artists. Whether digital created imagery is more or less important is yet to be explored. The diverse "tools" and techniques laid before the artist are the servants and not the masters of art.
BM - What made you want to get involved with Art On A Postcard?
MR - My son, a movie director in Hollywood , knows Gemma Peppé and I am delighted to have met her and make a couple of postcards. I hope to collaborate further in the future
Also my late best friends partner is a liver specialist scientist and consultant concerned with hepatitis.
BM - What other exciting things are you working on at the moment?
MR – Annually I do have commitments to The Royal Academy and commercial outlets. If I can, I will work with the poet Julie Bird to "illustrate" a prose work of hers. An embryo at present is to develop a charitable project about artist painted ukeleles!
Otherwise I am working for an exhibition at The Fosse Gallery, Stow on the Wold for March 2017.
The tendency these days though, is to keep quiet and forget the thrustings of artistic ambition. We all have a past but history is a narcoleptic until roused. And who am I to rouse it?
BM – Where can we find out more about your work?
MR - The Fosse Gallery, Government Art Collection, The Jerwood Foundation, The Royal Academy Collection. The Towner Art Gallery, The Royal College of Art Collection. London Transport Collection.
All at Sea is available as a signed and numbered edition of 50 unframed at £125.00 Archival Print on Somerset Satin Enhanced 330 gsm paper, deckled edge.
About the writer
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Benjamin Murphy is an artist who primarily creates delicate figurative works using black electrical tape. As well as this, he regularly writes about contemporary art. He lives and works in London. |