Monthly Dispatch
Welcome to the Monthly Dispatch, in which I look back over the past month and share a few highlights with you all. The Monthly Dispatch is for free and paid subscribers alike and will hopefully add new depth to the journey we a taking together.
I began this month thinking about hope. Hope for a new year full of projects and potential. January is usually not a month I enjoy very much. In years past I have wished I could hibernate through it and wake up at some point in mid-February. This year’s been different. January has been, not only incredibly productive, but for the most part, deeply enjoyable. So here are a few stories about what I’ve been up to…
Last Month in the Van Build
The van came back from the mechanics yesterday. Frustratingly it came back with the job’s half done. The good news is there isn’t any rust on the under body, and it already had a protective coating. Plus, the mechanic managed to get the last of the floor out, a truly impressive feat! The sad news is that because there are other jobs left undone the van will have to go back.
However, I think I can start construction before then, so fingers crossed this hiccup won’t delay things too much. I am bored of waiting and want to get building! I will be starting with the windows and insulation. Light and warmth seem the best place to begin shaping my new home. I hope to have what I need ordered and on its way to me by the middle of this week. I will keep you updated.
My Art
For those free subscribers who perhaps haven’t heard my news I am thrilled to have taken on the role of the UK’s first Blue Carbon Artist in Residence. I am working with an amazing group of organisations to create The Seagrass Walk: an installation that will open at the National Marine Aquarium this summer. It’s the biggest project I have ever worked on, and full of new challenges.
Has anyone ever played with a GoPro camera before? They are fun. And tiny. Last week I went out on a boat to visit a seagrass bed near Plymouth, and to experiment with a GoPro.
I wanted to work out a way of anchoring the camera to the sea floor. The technique we eventually came up with basically involves a long, pointed stick and a camera mount. As is so often the case- simple is best. I had a huge amount of fun and got some very encouraging footage, including an impressively large crab scuttling across the frame.
It was fascinating being on the water around Plymouth, the juxtaposition of naval submarines and herons, industrial fishing boats and cute Devon villages is a strange one. But drifting with the engine off and the January sun shining down was a special experience. I am going back at the end of this week to put my experiments into action and hopefully get the first real footage and photographs for the project.
Other Thoughts and Stories
One of the things I want to achieve this year is to widen my reach as an artist. The Seagrass Walk will be a huge part of that, and so will my book proposal which is coming along steadily. Both these project are huge, and rich with potential for my future. They also offer material and content for other avenues through which I can share my work: magazines articles, photo essays, interviews, podcasts and more. This month I have spent time compiling a list of such places, searching down the ones in which I think my work will feel at home. I plan to approach as many of them as possible.
One of the things about working in the arts, whether it be as a visual artist, an actor, a musician, or a writer is that you must be willing to hear the word No a lot. When I was young my Mum went to a talk with the Dalai Lama. One of the things he said that day was that if you can bare to hear the word no, you can ask for anything. My Mum shared this piece of wisdom with my sister and I, and we took it to heart. It has formed the bedrock of my creative career. It is what gives me the courage to create such a list, to submit to magazines and competitions, to write funding applications, to email people I’ve never met and ask if I could work with them.
After creating my list, I started doing just that, and joy of joys got a Yes almost immediately. The yes came from Speak Up for Blue, a marine podcast. And so, last week I recorded my first podcast interview, sharing my journey as an artist, and some details from the Blue Carbon Residency with marine biologist and podcaster Andrew Lewin. I had a truly wonderful time; Andrew is a fantastic interviewer, and it was a pleasure sharing the details of my work. For anyone who would like to you can find it HERE.
The rest of the list is waiting for me, and I hope that any other yeses I get are as enjoyable as this one was.
Monthly Recipe
In honour of Holocaust Remembrance Day last week, I wanted to share a specific recipe. Like so many others I haven’t left the UK since before the pandemic. There are so many things I have missed about travelling, not least European Jewish Bakeries.
My family on my father’s side are Hungarian Jewish, my grandmother a Holocaust survivor. I have a deep-rooted interest in Jewish Europe history. Every city I visit I find the Jewish quarter, exploring the streets that once housed the Jewish citizens of Europe. These explorations, in Budapest and Prague, Barcelona and Venice, have resulted in tears and anger at the anti-Semitism that has ruled Jewish lives throughout history. It has also resulted in incredible sights, spiritual encounters, and delicious baked goods. There are flavours to be found in Jewish bakeries that rarely exist elsewhere, and one of those is poppy seed, turned into a paste.
To help make up for my yearnings, and to fulfil my love of baking, Kim bought me some fancy flour this Xmas, including a poppyseed flour from an amazing Hungarian company. The first thing I baked with it was Hamantaschen Cookies, one of my favourite treats in the world, and a much-missed taste these last two years.
After searching through blogs and cooking websites I found this recipe from Tori Avery, which is wonderfully easy to follow and utterly delicious. And as it isn’t my own I am going to point you towards her wonderful website. You can use poppy seeds that you grind yourself so don’t worry if you don’t have fancy poppy seed flour!
I hope you enjoy it, and look forward to sharing some of my own recipes with this incredible flavour once I’ve perfected them.