In a way or another, we are getting to this end of this academic year. And what a year this has been! For the past week I have been focusing on the book and on writing in general. I had a tutorial [#12] with KS last Tue and we just checked where I am at. I am also aware that last week was 6 MAY: the anniversary of the earthquake and one year from CONSERVATION… I felt off. Many thoughts and memories to go through. I have accepted to participate in the Orton Writing Group Proje

I am back at college after London and after my solitary writing residency in Morecambe for 5 days [bliss…]. In the meantime I have: chosen the university: York. I have chosen York for many different reasons, but mainly because I need to leave, I need challenges, I need to be challenged, I need to meet and talk with different people, I need to see different places, and to be stimulated by different things. I am aware of the fears connected with leaving Blackburn as an academic

I write this after being back home for just a day. I feel the need of writing this now, in order to critically review the experience before I start forgetting details. organisation From the very first exchange of emails, their documentation and their website, I could see that things were not up to a professional standard, or at least a standard I am used to, hopeful for, and that I would definitely offer should I be the curator / manager of a gallery. And a professional stand

Before the detailed feedback and write up of the experience, the self-enquiry and final thoughts on the whole experience, I want to park here some of the pictures I have taken of the process, starting with the [ingenious] system I used to hang the paper since nothing was available: And here are some of the pictures I have taken along the way, starting from yesterday: And then moving on to today: And this is now the “final piece”: #cryptgallery #research #abstract #london #res

It’s Thursday afternoon, and everything is almost ready for me to go. I don’t actually even know how I got to this moment, where my large suitcase is full, on the floor in my living room, waiting for me to grab it, jump on a coach, and wake up tomorrow morning in London. But from tomorrow, for 3 days, I will be doing / performing / making / showing … my before nothing in a gallery in London, at The Crypt. There have been back and forth of emails and plans, and cancellation of

I showed tutor PL the last two works / experiments I did as in drawing on music. He told me that “those are something different” and he noticed how the energy and mark-making are sustained throughout the pieces. He noticed also depth, width, the human element of the marks. We discussed synesthesia and my “feeling” some of the words by means of pitches and noises in my head (tinned tuna to me is a squeaking noise in my gums). We talked Pollock and de Kooning, Europe and the US

These are the feedback I have received from the critique – presentation. I would also like to thank everybody who has participated and provided insight to my work and gave me food for thought. Thank you! inspiriting, passionate speaking maybe too fast? yes, I realised I did. Sorry about that! why small caps? I always did. Not when I write normally, or academically, but in presentations or when I was doing marketing and coaching, always small caps; I also believe that it looks

I set off with 5 of my pieces in plaster and went there. I chose the pieces carefully and I went there. I made sure that my camera was fully charged, the laptop ready, the sun hidden behind some clouds, that I had all possible needed connections, cables, phones, wifi. That the coffee was warm, that I had some food with me; and I went there. I went there. It’s incredible how the mind plays tricks on you: I cannot remember things I did or places I was in the company of some peo

A “no” is always a “no”. I don’t think it matters if you are 18, 30 or 52; if it’s your first or the last of a long line of “no’s”. It hurts. The first thing was looking for a validation and I found only smashed ideals. Then, the smaller part of me, shrunk to almost nothing and tried to find a justification to wear on my face on Monday morning. That right look that says it all: I have at least tried, I still believe in me, it’s only a piece of work, only wood, it’s just the f

These are part of the feedback received during the course up to now. I have started with a feedback from one of the tutors, JC, as follows: “Matilde has made an excellent start to the course and is exceeding target grades. She has achieved distinction grades in her initial diagnostic assessment and has a superb work ethic. She has been thoroughly involved in all aspects of the study programme, volunteering to participate in a performance with an artist at the Harris Museum an

I have accepted to take a risk and on Wed 7 Nov I have stood in front of my class in the lecture theatre and presented my work so far. I was tense, feeling vulnerable, and I knew I was taking a risk: I was the first one, I have a creative past most people didn’t know about, I have about 30 years of extra experience compared to my fellow students, some clear ideas, a lot of confusion, and I felt very much a fish out of the water. I have re-run same and recorded the audio of th

Lecture by Jamie Holman on the making and the doing. When do we start making? When do we exactly begin? What’s the starting point of our process? Some people said as a reaction and a response to something or someone; others after reading; in order to extend our knowledge; by looking, and looking back, and looking again. I said: from an idea, from my compulsion to create. It’s a gut feeling, an instinct. It’s not just something I see, or words I hear, or a song I listen to. Mo