As I said, I started this twelve-step program for artists or anyone who feel creatively blocked or stuck or confused. I’ve started this a few times before since I found out about it in 2020 but never did the whole thing so to hold myself accountable I’ll log the “weekly control” here.

Morning pages

3 pages written by hand every morning - about whatever surfaces in your mind. I did them everyday but one morning I just wrote 2 pages and one morning half a page. It’s pretty boring but when you get into it it’s also meditative. If anyone read them they’d probably offer me medication but no one is supposed to so

Artist date

You’re supposed to date yourself, like do something that you as an artist alone would enjoy to inspire you etcetc. I went to see The Brutalist in the cinema. They had a 15 min break in the middle of the movie, never experienced that before?? Seemed like I was the only one surprised, everyone just left their seats to get coffee or whatever and then came back after 15 min, very strange. Adrien Brody is such a great actor. I will see it again. Beautiful cinematography. They should have TW on the r*pe scene though, so here’s one for you if you’re going to see it. This was on a sunday, I will start going to the cinema on weekdays, during the day, instead.

Other discoveries

I can be harsh towards myself in my morning pages and the book tells you to “transform your blunders into affirmations” & here I’m a natural

Stay tuned for more self help

I saw a documentary of Takashi Murakami too and I liked the simplicity of this

Our job as artists is to bring out what is inside

also this haha

I'm not particularly obsessed with painting. I've happened to employ 300 people. If it's going to work, I have to make money. Having created such a situation means I can make good art in the workshop. Getting money so that the company doesn't go under is what drives me.

I just watched a documentary about the film maker Michel Gondry and took notes of his methods bc I relate

1. when you have an idea just get started
2. learn as you do
   at the beginning of the project, you don't know how to solve all the problems, but you find solutions as the problems arise, you learn
3. don't listen to others
   when you do it your own way, people will say "that's not how you do it, it can't be done" don't listen to them, just keep going and ignore the critics
4. put in context
   do the opposite: listen to others. when you get a little further along, you can start to take in other people's opinions to get an outside perspective on the whole thing
5. go back to point 3
   if people start to interfere too much, you stop listening to them

When my mind is troubled I return to this book

A friend of mine, a film director that lived in a collective where we once had our studio, showed me this book in the beginning of 2020. I started reading - practicing - it as the pandemic brought the world to a halt. I have since then picked it up many times throughout the years and recommend it to every friend who experiences any kind of block, doesn't have to be creative.

And now it’s time again bc my mind is in trouble

Link if you also want to read it

"Mama Matrix conjures a deep dub & spoken word set for Radio Alhara- Sonic Resistance Practices hosted by VENA platform. Featuring recent productions by Mama with Iraqi writer, poet & percussionist Taha Salim from his recent poetry book ‘Remnants of War, Migration and Love’. The tripped out mix also features her production with poet Reeta Cherie."
‍

VENA is a platform and label by dear friends of ours in Milan.

‍

...their manifesto:

Cultural Resistance and Sonic Practices

VENA is a forward-thinking platform and label that explores new ways of cultural interaction.

The project aims to curate environments where cultural commitment emerges organically, redefining the concept of entertainment through a dialogue between design, relational practices and sound experiments.

International festivals and residencies: VENA has established itself as a catalyst for transformative events and artistic residencies in international contexts with high symbolic value. These events are rooted in the specificities of local communities, creating layered narratives through the encounter between sound, visual arts, extra-academic and curatorial practices.

Each experience is configured as a cultural translation device, capable of generating new forms of mutual understanding and celebrating the complexity of collective artistic expression.

‍