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A slice of me still cannot believe that a line led me to be part of the magical environment of the Mawddach Residency with Scarlett, Jake and their cat Toby. The project I submitted was about drawing and learning through my body using all the senses. My main interest was focused on seaweeds; my biggest fear. I needed a direct experience of the underwater world as my chance of closeness to know these organisms better though multi-sensorial observation. I am afraid of them because I identify seaweeds with the darkest and most scary inner feelings. In general the underworld is associated with the irreversible coldness of death, but I tend to see it also like the place where silent revolutions happen, where a seed or a fish may feel safe, covered with a peaceful osmotic armour. During my two weeks there, inspired by the overwhelming nature the Mawddach estuary offers, I additionally focused my attention on all the perpetual exchanges happening constantly through a porous limit, like the conjunction between the river and the sea, the water and the beach, all those areas involved into the perpetual, daily seesaw of the tide. All these spaces are a sort of “no man’s land” where living organisms redefine the concept itself of in and out, up and down, where everything is flexible and possible, the whole idea of directions and levels looks like a bunch of meaningless categories. Every day I explored the Mawddach river bed, under the Barmouth viaduct and the feeling of walking on quicksand was so powerful and scary but also reinvigorating: I am not going down, I am just being pulled in a different dimension. I was learning the physical sense of just being present and being animated into a moving environment. Everyday one of my tasks was finding little treasures like seashells, algae and seaweeds. I collected them,
like someone else’s unwanted gifts. I studied, drew, painted, embroidered, printed them, an important exercise also psychologically, acceptance of what you have and just do with that. No judgement, just observation and acquaintance through artistic practice and eventual identification through empathy. I decided that it could have been challenging and on point to use clothing instead of paper so I could wear not just the landscape but also seaweeds and to see how I felt. I involved only vintage dresses and bought in local charity shops to make the whole operation as sustainable as possible. Along with this, a new part of the universe had been unveiled by Scarlett who generously introduced me to Lithography on foil. It was just the new adventure I was looking for and that now I am obsessed with. My other fellow artist, Marie-Louise Wasiela, the fabulous one I was paired with, wisely pushed me into this direction all the remaining week. Jake and Scarlett invited me and Marie-Louise to join all their drawing sessions, as artists but also as models. For me it was the first time and it has been so challenging and amazing at the same time. Everything was so natural and everyone was so encouraging. Scarlett and Jake invited us to consult books from their studios and they have been the most flexible and welcoming people and artists, always generously sharing their time, their experience and their delicious food as well. And if this isn’t enough, the accomodation is impeccable. Spacious, lovely, fully equipped, stylish and extremely comfortable. Jake and Scarlett gave us food for birds and every morning Marie-Louise and I had our daily session of bird watching from the window of the kitchen. Magic exists, it’s a superb tangle of people, nature and lines in Wales. website
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