Archive (Page 3) • More Like a Spoon Than a Fork • Buttondown

September 7, 2022

During COVID I got really into Saturday Night Live. I don't know why, it's not always funny, but there was something about watching compilations of sketches...

What we feel when

August 22, 2022

I'm off to Sydney tomorrow and Hawaii the day after. It's my first non-art-making holiday (and first international trip) since early 2019. For 2019, 2020,...

No Silver Bullets - money and art part 2 (fuck it!)

August 17, 2022

One of the things I want to do is show The Killing Sink in places that aren't Australia. To me, this seems like it would be a big step up and allow me to...

No Silver Bullets

August 17, 2022

One of the things I want to do is show The Killing Sink in places that aren't Australia. To me, this seems like it would be a big step up and allow me to...

August 10, 2022

I think the question that I ask myself in my art life is 'what's next?'. With art making, we often fixate on the wrong end point, and this can cause some...

I like maps but not Maps

A friend asked me to write about why I don't like to use navigation apps in cars and I figured 'why not? it's a whimsical enough topic', so here we are....

End of something, start of something else

Hey - so I think this is my, like, 5th email that's been about starts and ends in some form. I didn't realise that I've been thinking about things in this...

Good enough. Great. Perfect.

I've been making new work recently and it's sort of being amazing and disappointing all at the same time. The amazing part is being out, energised, engaging...

Bad rock climbing

When I lived in Canberra a friend of mine from teaching said 'hey come rock climbing'. She is a really accomplished climber, as is her husband (Australia's...

I wanted to share a bit about how being an artist is going financially but I’ve had a surprisingly busy week and just haven’t had the chance to crunch the...

There's a season to everything

One of my favourite things to say is 'there's a season to everything' and it strikes me that it's a slightly more poignant way of saying 'everything ends'....

Heavy Rocks (it's a long one)

On Friday last week I went to my first live music concert in a long time. Not just because of COVID, but just in general I don’t go to much live music....

Five Years (...and counting)

On Friday I had a big shipment arrive at my house, a pallet jack had to be used to get it from the truck to my front door. Shrouded in an obscene amount of...

Biocrust, new work and when is an idea a good one?

Hello everyone. I know I'd said I'd be too busy to write a newsletter this week, but guess who has COVID? (symptoms are mild and I'm almost done isolating)...

Matty on break!

Hi guys - I'm traveling for work, then on leave, then traveling for work again, so it'll be a while. Have a great three weeks :)

Weeding changes the world

On the weekend I went to the You Yangs with my parents to weed Koala habitat. We were looking for a plant called Bone Seed (what a great name!) that...

Sometime in the last year or two I've noticed a change in myself: when I walk past a sign advertising the lotto I just can't help myself, I think 'fuck that...

Sweet Potato Dip

Yumi's Sweet Potato and Cashew Dip has a special place in my heart. The summer between Year 11 and Year 12 I was really, really sick. In, like, September or...

All the small things

Something I've been grappling with for a long time is the idea that regular, small things matter as much, or more, as larger, more dramatic, more story-...

In my memory, some years are just monoliths: so much seemed to have happened and occurred. Others are barely blips. 2005, for example, is a year I could name...

There's a lot of waste in the world

I run a small publishing company and through this I send maybe 200-300 packages a year. It amazes me that, just by saving packaging I get from other things I...

Fizzy (and the soft sell)

Most days I feel fizzy for some of the day. To me fizzy is both tired and energetic, it's stimulated but undirected. I could go for a run, fire up Photoshop...

I think about Fantasy like I think about Art

Of all the genre fiction that I adore, Fantasy is my absolute favourite. While it's the red-headed-step-child of the writing world, for as long as I've been...

Normal to Great

One of my favourite things about life is how small the difference between a normal day and a great day really is. To me, and maybe this is my personality, a...

White Bread - it was nice while it lasted

In main part due to how sick I was last week, I have been eating a bunch of white bread, something I've not done in years (decade+). Actually today, while...

Short one this week

I spent the afternoon before you're reading this on the phone with the ambulance trying to sort out if I needed to be rushed to the ER ASAP with something...

Too big to fail

February 24, 2022

I've been obsessed with the ocean lately. While I've always loved the beach, and for years wanted to be a marine biologist, over the last few months I've...

February 17, 2022

Strap in readers, this is a long one. But don't worry, no NFT chats at all. In 2018 I decided I would never be a High School teacher ever again. I had...

Curiosity is a form of exploration

February 10, 2022

One of my pleasures is reading to or listening about explorers. Not so much the age of exploration, which strikes me as naive and damaging, but a lot of...

Art, doubt, anxiety

February 3, 2022

Putting something out in the world is rarely a good feeling. It's always nerve-wracking and unpleasant, at least a little bit. Questions like 'will anyone...

January 27, 2022

When I was 12 or 13 I made the mistake of signing up to play cricket for my school team. Cricket, like anything, really is a struggle to care about once it's...

Thylacine (I want to believe)

January 20, 2022

I recently watched this documentary about folks in Australia who believe that the Thylacine (Tasmanian Tiger) is still alive. For those living overseas, the...

Jogging slowly, closing a circle

January 13, 2022

I'm not a very good runner, in fact it's probably unfair to call me a runner at all. Once a week, sometimes twice if the weather is extra perfect, I'll go...

Rewilding: ego is the enemy

January 6, 2022

Having recently moved house, some of my many house plants are struggling in their new space. It's summer, and we're experiencing a heatwave here in...

I think of ecology like I think about society (spiders)

December 30, 2021

A few days ago my girlfriend screamed 'there's a really fucking big spider here'. He had emerged from some boxes (we'd moved houses) and totally startled...

Welcome to More Than a Spoon Than a Fork

December 28, 2021

For a year-and-a-bit I worked in England at a fairly posh school filled with great people. One of the best teachers there showed the staff a great lesson...