Mathilde Van Gheluwe
Give us a little peek into your style's evolution. What shaped your current aesthetic approach?
I have been drawing since I [was] a kid, and I really got into it in a more serious way during puberty. Back then I was mostly picturing elves, dark things, cute girls and non-threatening boys, à la Lisa Simpson. Art school really helped me broaden my pictural universe, that's obvious, but what really shaped my current aesthetic are the artists around me. Watching someone work made me feel more conscious and curious about my own process.
My first residency in Sweden back in 2013 opened a door that permanently and forever bonded my work to the use of graphite, which is my favorite material.
If you could expand to any medium you haven't yet attempted, what would it be?
I am more and more interested in printing techniques and fabric design; there is something about it that fascinates me. I think I would start with tapestry, it seems very complicated to me.
Might you be able to share with us a work of yours that has a personal story associated with it?
When I finish[ed] my bachelor, I won a prize the first prize of the Fumetto Festival. I drew a four-page comic about my little brother. He was diagnosed with ADHD, but my mom never accepted to give him any drugs. He was just a kid with a lot of energy. I tried to explore, through a story, the life he would have had if she would have changed her mind and give him the pills.
[Photo via @mathilde-vg]