Madeira- another artistic mobility
Ponta de São Lourenço, Madeira
No news that I love travelling and discovering new places and I take every opportunity I get to do so. I was so lucky that this year I managed to become a Creative Europe grantee (again) and spend three amazing weeks in Madeira with the coolest organisation and people ever.
My project was about meeting other artists, getting to know how a gallery works and gather inspiration for a new collection. Arte.m association exceeded all my expectations and I was so amazed by how professional Svetlana is. And I also made a new friend, Diana, who is a super talented fashion designer and a badass human. I met so many interesting and talented people, I truly feel very lucky and grateful.
I did have a great time there, aside from the kind people, the nature is breathtaking on the island. Rugged beaches, frangrant laurissilva forests, exotic flowers and the cleanest streets and most organized parks and gardens I’ve ever seen.
The first few days were very intense, there were so many places to discover, so many things to see and food to taste. I can’t really pick one place to call it my favorite but I loved random levada hikes in the sun, not knowing where I’m going to, just enjoying the scenery, letting myself wander among the greenest hills. Then I started planning my hikes, Madeira is famous about its scenic hikes. Unfortunately, the number one hiking route where everyone wants to go was still closed but I still managed to do some pretty epic ones. After a few days of hiking the popular routes-full of people, I started looking for places that are a bit more quiet. There seemed to be way too many people for being such a small island and the hiking season hasn’t even started yet. So I went to random places I picked from the maps and enjoyed walking by myself.
During the second week I experienced one of the heaviest rains in my life but thanks to Diana, we still had lots of fun. I gotta tell, it’s a much better experience when locals show you around than discovering everything by yourself. We also had time to prepare for our workshop. I think we both were a bit afraid at the beginning but things slowly started to take shape and the workshop went very well. We had lots of people participating, foreigners and locals as well, which is a compliment itself already, because usually it’s very hard to take the locals out to a workshop. I also participated myself in some workshops that were relaxing and fun. It’s good to be on the other side sometimes too.
Diana, me, Mishka, Svetlana
If you are a fellow artist or creative, I can only recommend this opportunity. It’s great to reset, meet new people, find inspiration and take your practice one step further.
Coming back home, feels like everything is happening in high speed but I promised to come up with a collection inspired by Madeira and I would like to honor that promise as soon as I can take a breath. ‘Till then, you can choose from my older pieces on the website.