Stormie mills is one of those artists that, if you follow street art, needs very little introduction. For almost thirty years, the Perth artist has plied his trade – painting, drawing and decorating walls and gallery spaces the world over with his unique and enigmatic characters.

His depictions of often solitary characters belie any thought of simplicity in the stories they tell. Viewing them, each image is seemingly crafted with a hidden narrative – their trails, tribulations, triumphs or titillations depicted in a simple stance, expression or suggestive gesture. That Stormies work is beloved by art lovers the across the globe is no mystery – here are images that talk, and they do so through a variety of techniques and experiments in mediums that the artist has explored over the passage of time.

Invurt caught up with Stormie in the lead up to his next solo show this week, at the curiously cool Friends of Leon Gallery in Sydney, and we were given the chance to delve, ever so slightly, into an internal world of continual fascination …

When you started out doing graff back in Perth all those years ago, did you believe you’d still be doing it now? Was it always a direction you wanted to go in?

When I started painting in Perth around 1984 [close to 30 years ago], I started on my own based on the images I saw on record covers, in the backgrounds of video clips and in movies. I never thought ‘this is what I’m going to do for the rest of my life’ but I’d drawn since I was small child and it was all I wanted to do, so I found this instant gratification art form I’d been looking for.

It was like I was speaking a foreign language, then all of a sudden I found others that spoke my language. It wasn’t a direction even, you couldn’t go to a workshop or the art teacher at school to get you books or spray cans and trick tips to work with in class. Everything I did was painted at night and learnt from mistakes. I experimented without “rules” and in a sense I’m very lucky I started when I did because it was truly non-conformist then, as nothing had been done, there were no parameters or confines.

You are very much a character artist – and your characters are always so well realised that they appear to have their own worlds and stories behind them – when you started out painting walls and drawing, what moved you towards characters rather than, say, scenery or even letterforms and such?

I’d always drawn people and monsters as a kid so I didn’t really know it was a movement, or a style, I just liked the characters, so that’s what I focused on.  I didn’t know about letters until later, and, I guess, over many years it is a good way to learn to paint, but it’s not something I feel is that relevant for me. I like to put a meaning into something I do that comes from a tale or story of someone’s struggles and triumphs and I feel that for me, the big city swagger of a giant name emblazoned across the city walls just doesn’t work. I understand it, but I’m from Perth, and it was a small town when I was a kid, so I didn’t grow up with the feeling I was a number.

All the things that create graffiti in NYC have relevance to the people that were there, I get that, it just doesn’t apply to me. I needed to work out what it was that was relevant in my work and painting pictures about the human condition is relevant to me, I’m interested in the internal dialog.

In terms of production of your works, are you constantly evolving your usage of different mediums to explore the pieces, or refining the tools that you most love – is there ever an end to the learning curve?

I hope not. As a painter I have been self taught, so looking back at what I started doing, and how I started doing it, is important to me – but it’s a process of refinement rather than slaving myself to a technique. That is part of the process, but for me, painting is about tone and depth of meaning. Quality of line, command of a medium etc is, for me, greater than constricting what I do to one particular.

I conscribe to using what I have to make work, rather than that I can’t make work without a particular paint, or tip, or whatever. The learning is internal, and should never stop.

In a nutshell, is it all about experimentation, or detailed planning with your work?

Both of those nutshells! As a painter it’s important for me to take what I learn from the environment I paint in and put it into my work. The question of why people paint walls and why others don’t like that to happen is a great question – now how do I get that question into my work? Graffiti remover as a medium is an answer, then how do you turn it into a medium, use something that was created to remove artwork and in the process turn it into artwork itself?  It’s not just an irony, it’s a metaphor for our society and how we are obsessed with our houses and yet there is a growing population of homeless people.

So I got to this equation by experimentation, it was refined by practice, and is created with planning.

You’ve mentioned in previous interviews, that you usually work in isolation and don’t usually get too involved with “the scene” here in Australia – are there both pros and cons to this that you can think of, or are you just happy to be away from all the politics and other and lets your work speak for itself?

I’m just happy getting on with my own work.

You recently had your show “Scuffling” at Metro Gallery in Melbourne – how did the show to, and were you happy with the whole outcome of the motifs you were exploring, that of “Scuffling?”

The show went really well, it had big attendances and people really got it. They connected with the work in ways that I was very privileged to see and be a part of – I had old ladies who hugged me and men who stood in front of works and cried about the lack of humanity in the world.

If I can do something that affects people like that, that reaches them in that way, I’m very happy.

How did you actually come up with using the technique itself?

For many years I’ve been exploring the process of addition and removal, as I said before it’s an interesting subject, so I started using graffiti remover in my work using a paint brush with graffiti remover, spray paint and acrylic.

Scuffling is a painting technique that I wasn’t aware of until recently when someone pointed it out to me after watching me paint in Miami last year. Obviously, that technique traditionally wasn’t using graffiti remover, but the use of the brush the scrubbing motion of it that’s called scuffling.

How about the upcoming show at Friends Of Leon? What will you be showcasing there, and what is the theme around it? How were the collection of works inspired and what can your fans expect to see?

It’s twelve small, dirty little characters. I wanted to do a small show, not necessarily in terms in numbers of works but works that were intimate that you had to get close to, to look at. I also wanted to work with Leon, so we could do something in his space that was still quality and creative in the work and the installation.

A friend of mine years ago described my work as angels with dirty faces so I wanted to do a show that represented that emotion.

Something we were interested in earlier – a book was recently launched, Craigie Tales, that delves into Perths Craigie Wall project – we believe you were involved in the inception of the early mural project at the wall. Can you tell us a bit about your involvement in it, and looking back now, what you think the walls provided?

My involvement was greater than that, but I believe that in creating those spaces it’s about being altruistic – I certainly don’t need to seek accolades for it, it wasn’t the first time I’ve been instrumental in creating something like it.

We’ve seen quite a bit of work from you overseas, including the Ghost Village work from back in 2009 – what have been some of your favourite projects you’ve worked on over the years? How does travel factor into your working output?

The Ghost Village was a great project to work on  – it was with a bunch of guys I’ve known for over 20 years, and a road trip to the middle of nowhere. The place and the surroundings were amazing, so all things lined up to make it an incredible experience.

The Ghostvillage Project from Agents Of Change on Vimeo.

What will you have planned after this show, and what projects, yet unrealised, do you dream of doing?

I’m curating an exhibition at Linton & Kay Contemporary in Perth in October called For, Against & The Truth then going to paint a wall in Miami in December for my homies Books & Cristina …

Check out Stomie Mills website here, as well as info on his upcoming show “Dirty Dozen” and the Friends of Leon website.