Street art under lockdown
Meet the artists who turned crisis into creativity
COVID-19 lockdown was perhaps one of the most intense period of isolation most of us have ever experienced. Painfully frustrating for some but for others it provided an opportunity for reflection, inspiration and uninterrupted creativity.
Heather Holt and Morgan Olley are two such artists who used this time of solitude as a chance to reconnect, refocus and re-energize their passion for art, the environment, and each other.
Collaborate, create and carry on
Creating art together shortly after meeting, their style is nothing short of cosmic. Morgan is a graffiti artist who started large-scale spray painting some 15 years ago in Sydney, where wall art has become an intrinsic part of urban culture. When Morgan moved to Cayman in 2017 there wasn’t much of a street art scene so he did what most probably wouldn’t and built himself a wall in the backyard.
Heather’s style is somewhat different. A professional portrait photographer and photojournalist, Heather began experimenting with oil paints in 2010 following an art class offered by the National Gallery Of The Cayman Islands. She spent the next decade honing her craft into producing incredibly realistic paintings of photographs that she had taken.
Over time, these two artists and their vastly opposing genres met somewhere in the middle and they started to produce some truly unique pieces of art together. “Morgan would create these deep, inviting backgrounds and I would then use my oils in the foreground to bring it to life”, explains Heather.
Then Morgan had an idea (a very big one it turns out), and not even their artistic differences were enough to deter him. Morgan managed to convince Heather, his girlfriend and collaboration partner of 3 years, to paint a giant mural with him. “We had only ever done small canvases in the past so this was a big step for us”, says Heather.
The risk was well worth the reward. With Heather's life-like recreations of the underwater world and Morgan's signature street style, the result is an eye-popping explosion of texture, depth and enticing detail.
Out of adversity comes really good art
“The wall was a huge accomplishment. I had never painted anything that big before”, explains Heather. “I also wasn’t totally comfortable with the process. The nature of graffiti art is that it is temporary. Being a slow painter, I found it a bit painful to paint over everything!”.
The fun didn’t stop there. With the floodgates of creativity open, this magnetic partnership embarked on a few more projects during lockdown. “I finished The Jellyfish oil on canvas, and started Barracudas and Morgan ended up painting the wall four more times!” she adds. There’s even a plan afloat for a new collab - a Yellow Crowned Night Heron, originally photographed by Heather in Little Cayman.
With lockdown lifted and the world slowly starting to right itself, the obvious next question would be about the possibility of an Art Show but budding art collectors will have to wait. “We would love to show our work but we have so many ideas and so much to create that we want to focus on that for now”.
To see more of Cayman’s art under lockdown, visit http://www.nationalgallery.org.ky/whats-on/exhibitions/art-under-lockdown/. An online community exhibition running until 31 August.