Matt is a Multimedia Artist, Performer and Educator from Norwich, UK.
Welcome to my online portfolio and blog. Please feel free to peruse its pages. Should you wish to contact me you may do so via the web form here. For a biography click here.
News
April 2009
Squid at the Smithsonian.
The lovely people at the Smithsonian Institute (America's national educational facility with 19 museums, 9 research centers and over 140 affiliate museums around the world.) Have very kindly hosted my short animation about Dr. Clyde Roper, their resident expert on cephalopods. (That's squid and octopus incase you didn't know!) It's already had over a thousand hits and can be seen on my Youtube page, here or on the Smithsonian Giant Squid page here.
February 2009
Here be Dragons!
I recently had the opportunity to run a puppet workshop in Norwich Cathedral on behalf of the Puppet Theatre. It was all part of Norwich Dragon Festival a unique celebration of dragons in the history and culture of our city with around 40 events in over 15 venues over the three weeks. Those who came to the free event had a fantastic time and made some excellent dragons. Its all been thanks to Norwich 12 and HEART the Norwich Heritage Economic and Regeneration Trust.
January 2009
Penguins on Parade!
The Penguins from the Cauldwell Children project have been out on display in the Norwich Forum building. Some of the kids involved turned up for the offical presentation, as did the local press.
December 2008
Penguins, Heroes and Villains
So from Elephants to Penguins, and a fun project with Cauldwell Children. With the help of two other artists, Tim Edwards and Fiona Muller, a hospital, hospice, school and youth group were all aided in painting a lifsize emperor penguin model in a design of their choosing.
I've also been running animation workshops in Norfolk libraries with Tim, from UniQpictures on the theme of Heroes and Villains.
September 2008
Elephant Auction!
Norwich's much loved elephants raised a staggering £203,000 at a charity auction last night, more than double the sum predicted and in addition to nearly the same amount already donated through sponsorship. Feeling Fruity sold for £6000, so a big thankyou to the winning bidder!
Huzzah! Work begins on the first "Mini-Fruity" commission, a miniture replica of the larger Elephant that is out on the street. See one of the finished miniatures above.
Congratulations and a huge thankyou to all the staff and students of Istituto Comprensivo "G.Garibaldi", in Chiavenna, Italy. The final presentation was a great sucess, as testified by many parents who spoke to me afterwards, and a credit to the hard work of all the English Experience staff. Also a huge thanks to my host family, and their wonderful patience and hospitality.
August 2008
The Ele-Vet repair work continues, with much of the damage being caused at the weekends by people who have had a few too many. Many of the sculptures seem to have holes appearing in the surface finish, but if this is from vandalism or manufacturing defects, it is unclear. I have also had to reattach the explorer head to "Are we on the right Trail" outside Cinema City, after someone had decapitated him. Fiona from the Forum Trust had the very surreal experience of having to carry a severed head through the city streets in a carrier bag!
July 2008
The streets of Norwich are bustling with elephants and you only have to look at peoples reactions to see how popular they are. Sadly local scum de terre have taken it upon themselves to spoil everyones enjoyment and a spate of vandalisms has put some of our pachyderm pals out of action. Thankfully all is not lost, and the Forum Trust have appointed me an "Ele-Vet". Golden Child has had a spot of keyhole surgery with some fiberglass and body filler and once it's artist has done some touching up should be back on the streets in no time at all. Lets just hope someone returns Parallelephant's ears!
May 2008
This summer, the Forum Trust in association with "Wild at Art" have organised a city wide art trail, Commissioning Artists to paint or decorate 50 lifesize fibreglass baby elephant sculptures. After submitting a number of designs earlier in the year, local businesses and organisations chose which they would like to sponser. My commission, entitled Feeling Fruity will be on display on the corner of Saint Stephens street and Surrey street from 23rd June to 31st August. Come and check it out!
For some pictures of the finished elephant prior to varnishing look here.
March 2008
Congratulations to those Involved in the Green Machine project for Media Projects East. After a week of intensive film making, animating and puppetry the films are finished and ready to present. To come to the free screening at Norwich Puppet Theatre on Sat 29th March, contact the booking office.
Green Machine and Media Projects East Website can be found here.
Jan 28
Apologies to all those that have tried to email me using the Evening News advertised 1000thumbs email address. There have been some problems with forwarding the messages, and you may have had the message bounce. This email address is now working, so if you did try to contact me, please do so again.
SAVE NORWICH PUPPET THEATRE!
PROTEST! To be held Jan 19th, Chapelfield Gardens, Norwich from 11.30am. Guest speakers, music, performance and a carnival atmosphere.
January 2008
After 27 years of entertaining both children and adults, Norwich Puppet Theatre has been told that it is to lose £60,000 worth of funding from Arts Council England. This would mean that the internationally renowned theatre would have to close, and Norwich and the UK would be culturally poorer for it.
Thankfully this has yet to be set in stone, and more will be known after January 23rd when the ACE convene to make their final descision
Therefore we need you! Local press, councellors, artists, musicians and performers have joined the rallying cry to overturn this ill concieved proposal.
Please sign the online petition on the EDP website
For contined and up to date information see the Norwich Evening News Pages.
17th Oct 07
The Davenport Trust 'Happening', happened very sucessfully, with positive comments from both the cast and audience. Local press were there to cover the event and all the performances were filmed, so I will hopefully have some images soon.
Continuing work on "Colonel Viper and Camilla" A walk-about performance of a Victorian explorer and his pet Dinosaur.
Course Tutor position for the NCFE in Animation has begun. I'm looking forward to seeing what the adult class will create!
7th Oct 07
New website is nearly ready to go, just making final adjustments. Set being Built for the Davenport Trusts Landscape of Depression theatre piece to be performed in Norwich on World Mental Health day (Oct 10th)
What the press has to say...
