In the Spotlight: Anna Morrissey

"Anna Morrissey is an artist, and the publisher and editor of Tummy Ache, a bi-annual magazine using fashion and art to encourage conversations about mental health. She is a young person who is at ease and prolific in all areas of artistic expression. Now she is focused on painting, making paintings of her family members and people close to her."

- Bella Freud

Bella Freud has collaborated with the National Portrait Gallery to celebrate the 'Everything is a Portrait' collection, which coincides with the Lucian Freud 'Drawing into Painting' exhibition.
The National Portrait Gallery held a portrait drawing workshop with Bella Freud for young artists within the Gallery space to showcase the collection. Held by Charlie Gosling, artists were invited to take part in a portraiture session where artists sketched Bella and one another, in the tranquil space of the National Portrait Gallery.
The Lucian Freud exhibition will run 12th February - 4th May. The product capsule is available to shop in the Gallery and on https://npgshop.org.uk/

Photography by David Parry

Is there a specific piece that you're particularly connected to and why?

I recently did a painting of me and my mother. I think since I've started painting, there's been a gap between concepts that I've wanted to paint and things that just come out as if "- I need to paint this." That was one of the things that just kind of came out. I took this picture of her and collaged it together with some other stuff. It came out really easily and I managed to do it really quickly. I wanted to paint it all the time.

Are there any specific moments, memories, or environments that have shaped your ideas or processes?

I come from a very creative family, so there was always this centrality of art in our lives.

When I was starting, I didn't want to be told how to do something or watch other people doing it. I was quite insular and I didn't care what other people had to say. More recently, I did a course at the Royal Drawing School and that really condensed this need to make art into something much more urgent and directional. I felt suddenly I had the ability to get to where I wanted to go much quicker.

Are there any people in your life that have inspired you?

My mum has always inspired me. She's a writer. It's what drives her. She couldn't give herself over to us unless she'd given herself over to her creativity as well, it gave me the idea that that could be part of my life. I think as women we're not really told that. We're not fed that we can continue this creative passion throughout our lives. My mum sits down and she writes for hours every morning and then she does her day.

That process very much inspired me and gave me the possibility to think of this as a real thing that I could do.

I often lift from my family in my portraits as I'm intuitively drawn to them. I love this idea of using minute gestures and scenes that are very identifiable within a familial structure, but are laden with latent emotion and tension.

Do the clothes you wear, the way you present yourself, feel artistic and considered?

When I felt less confident and more anxious, the clothing I wore felt more like armour going out into the world. Whereas clothing for me now, I find I go through stages of wanting to be more feminine, more boyish, and I think that's important to me in terms of what I want and the energy I want to present to the world. I think it comes in waves; sometimes I have the energy to be inspired by what I'm wearing, or I'll get a new piece that really inspires me and makes me feel creative in getting dressed in the morning. Sometimes I don't have that energy.

Often what I like to wear to paint in is a nicely fitting pair of tracksuit bottoms that make me feel nice, even if they're covered in paint. I need them to make me feel like I look good in them. It sounds weird, but I want to feel masculine, but in a way that is powerful and very ‘me’.

What are your biggest influences outside of the art world?

I've been reading a lot of theory. I did an English degree. I didn't study art. Now that I look back retrospectively, it makes sense that I needed to see the world through more of a theoretical lens of, I don't want to say academia, but other people's writings and ideas. For example, Barbara Creed’s concept of the ‘Monstrous Feminine’. I've been reading a lot of Kathy Acker, Julia Kristeva and female writers like that who really inspire me ;even if they're not inspiring me directly, it comes out in my work and what I'm drawn to depicting.

How would you say that creating in a group affects your work?

I create in a different way, often if I’m in a class I can’t overthink it. Say I'm in a life drawing class, I have to create at speed and things come out that I’m surprised by. People like things about your work that you don't like yourself, and also you get to feed off what you like in other people's work.

I remember when I first did a life drawing class, there was one girl who was very messy. I'm always quite careful with my marks, maybe when I'm feeling a bit nervous, but she had charcoal everywhere and it was so messy- I thought ‘I want that kind of depth to my work!’. My work never looked like hers, but my line was a bit more confident and a bit less scared to be messy and ‘wrong’.

Do you have any works in progress or upcoming we should know about?

My main project - that is ongoing - is Tummy Ache. I have created a print magazine that focuses on a different emotion in each issue. I work with artists to excavate negative emotions from a shameful realm, and create these blueprints of emotions as felt by creatives. People can come back and look at them and think, "Wow, this person I really respect is jealous of all these people” or something like that, something unexpected. It is called @tummyacheuk on Instagram. In terms of painting, hopefully there will be an exhibition soon…

Which is your favourite Lucian Freud artwork from the exhibition?

My favourite drawing from the exhibition is Narcissus, 1949 (below).