Heavy Mental Podcast

In this mid-week episode, I (Rhys) chat with artist Russ Morland, who goes by the name, Lurk (@lurklovesyou on Instagram) — all of Russ' links can be found here. Russ is based on Vancouver Island in BC, Canada, and with his art, he creates weird worlds and inhabits them with strange creatures. His work is trippy, psychedelic, fun and vibrant.Russ draws inspiration from the worlds of lowbrow, street art, skateboarding, and board games, and throughout his career, his work has been featured on shoes, guitar pedals, underwear, skateboards, card games and a whole load more, for prominent clients including Mastodon, Britney Spears, Santa Cruz Skateboards, Etnies Shoes, and RedBull. In this conversation we talk about Russ’ tough upbringing in the north of England and how he found his way to creating art from a young age, feeling like a bit of a “weird, loner kid”, as he puts it in his own words.We talk about his early influences and how he developed the vivid, strange and unique style that his work is synonymous wit