Personal Space: Inside artist Matt Adnate's Thornbury home

Known for his large-scale Indigenous murals, which you can find in the back streets of Fitzroy and Collingwood, Matt Adnate, 35, will soon have an Art Series Hotel open in his name in Perth come October. Adnate has painted a 25-storey mega-mural on a wall of the hotel, making it one of the largest in the world.

The Melbourne-born and -based artist, who discovered a love of graffiti at 13 chasing tags along the Hurstbridge line, now calls Thornbury home. He lives in a corner weatherboard home with his wife Jess (an artist, jeweller and yoga instructor) and their one-year-old son Romeo Zephyr.

A photograph of the couple meeting the Dalai Lama sits in a frame while a large African bull skull hovers above the dining table – they’ve nicknamed him Harry. It’s an eclectic mix of spray cans, crystals, old surfboards, religious motifs, plants and memorabilia from trips to Barcelona and Berlin that fills their home of the past 12 months.

A few of Matt Adnate’s favourite things

Spray cans

You’ll find spray cans all over my house, they’re a huge part of my life. I use them every day. I became exposed to graffiti through the skateboarding scene while growing up in North Melbourne and noticing graffiti on train lines. Graffiti opened up my mind to what was possible with a spray can. I held my first one at 13 and haven’t stopped.

Skateboard

I purchased this skateboard in 2017 in New York. It has a 1980s retro design of an old VHS cover on the deck. It’s the sort of skateboard I grew up using. I paid $US200 for it. I still love to skate for that nostalgic feeling of being a teenager.

Face-mask respirator

This face-mask respirator covers my face completely when I paint. I replace these every six months. Using spray paint every day for 20 years is quite intense and not good for your health, so I need to protect myself as much as possible. It’s a good way to be able to use the medium without getting sick.

Bracelet with son’s name

My son Romeo Zephyr was born on September 13, 2018. My wife Jess had this bracelet made for me with his name on it. He is named after my wife’s grandfather and Zephyr is his middle name – which comes from the skateboard and the 2005 film Lords of Dogtown.

Own artwork

I made this artwork in 2014, it’s taken from my first exhibition of Australian Aboriginal portraits. This wasn’t the biggest piece or most elaborate in the show, but for me it is one of the strongest pieces I have done. It’s the way I executed the work; it was done quite quickly and in a more experimental way and I feel really connected to it.

Painting jacket

I’ve been wearing this jacket since buying it in Berlin in 2011. It has become a staple for me. It’s semi-waterproof, has a great hood that fits over my head with a respirator on and I can listen to music through my headphones while I paint. It’s a significant item because it’s part of my every day.

Full body harness

A full body harness is a staple when I do the large murals, and they’re supposed to save me from any dangers and keep me from falling from a 20-storey building. They’re still quite dangerous. You can’t hang from them for more than 15 minutes at a time because they can cut off your blood circulation. You forget about the danger when you paint, but I am conscious of safety. I purchased this from a workplace shop in Thornbury.

Artwork by Ken Gordon jnr from Bundjalung country

This was a gift given to me after creating an artwork for the Redfern Community in Sydney. The piece is sentimental because the story is about a goanna and a snake who had a fight. Old man goanna became Goanna Headlands at Evans Head, waiting for that old man snake to come back.