Hi and Welcome to A Nomadic Rose! If you’ve found your way here but are not yet subscribed, you can do so HERE. You will never miss a letter, and I’ll be eternally grateful for your support.
Now on to this week’s musings…
A Nomadic Rose turns three today. It is officially my longest running newsletter/blog/online writing type thing. I’m part of a generation whose life changed with the advent of MSN Messenger, MySpace, and Livejournal. Since I was a teenage, I have used multiple online platforms to share my life and my art in different ways. I have grown and evolved, finding my voice in the spaces. Every platform I used was right for the time and had something new and special going for it. But none of them had what Substack has: a real community of readers. That is what keeps me here, keeps me writing and sharing. It is also what keeps me exploring and reading the incredible writing of others on Substack. Being part of this community feels more real and solid than anything else online.
Substack describes itself as a new economic platform for culture, were writing has value and what you read matters. The aim of the platform is for writers and creators to be paid directly for their work, with subscribers supporting our livelihoods. What I have found in the last three years is that I receive a small amount of money every month from my paid subscribers but that no matter how small the sum, it feels huge. This is money being entrusted to me by wonderful and supportive patrons. That trust goes a long way.
However, A Nomadic Rose, is more than the paid subscribers. I currently have 179 subscribers in total, 20 of whom pay. These are modest numbers in comparison to many on Substack, but they are numbers that bring me an unmeasurable sense of joy, encouragement, and support. Each and every subscriber helps me focus on my art, makes me feel seen and heard, and helps me commit to my creative practice. Knowing that there is a community here I can share the journey with makes all the difference in the world. So, on this third birthday, I want to take this moment to say thank you.
Thank you for reading and thank you for subscribing.
An anniversary is also a perfect moment to take stock, evaluate, and make changes.
You may have noticed that my fortnightly posts have slowed in the last few months, becoming far more sporadic. The grief of losing Finn rolled into the summer season and an exponential increase of shifts at work. July became August without my really being aware. My time has been measured in days at work and rare days of sunshine in which I can throw myself into the sea. Thankfully, Tate St Ives is on top of the beach and the staff terrace has a washing line, so when shifts and sun coincide, I can spend my lunch break in the water.
Despite these excellent reasons, I miss writing to you all. Today seems like the perfect moment to commit once more to my fortnightly letters. They are the bedrock of A Nomadic Rose, and a hugely important part of my creative life. With the start date for my PhD rapidly approaching, and the funds from my summer of shifts meaning work on the van will soon make progress again, I know I will have a huge amount to share with you all.
Three years also feels like a moment to breathe new life into A Nomadic Rose, so I have spent the last few weeks considering what else I might want to write about.
Along with slightly reshaping Adventures in the Kitchen to include not just recipes but food stories from my life, I also have two new offerings:
The first I am calling Art Talks, essays and musings on the art and artists I discover during my PhD and in my job at Tate.
The second is something a little different as you won’t receive it to your inbox: all paid subscribers will receive twice yearly postcards sent from my travels, because who doesn’t LOVE real mail!
And, as an extra special treat, Founding Members will receive an item, either collected or created just for them over the course of the year. This will arrive to you on Winter Solstice to celebrate the return of the light.
I’m really excited by all these new offerings, and I hope my paid subscribers and Founding Members will be as well. If you like the sound of any of this and have £4.00 a month to share, please subscribe or upgrade your subscription here!
That’s it for tonight, I am going to make food and curl up under a blanket. It is once again unseasonably cold here in west Cornwall. Wish me sunshine and swims during my shift tomorrow. I will write again in very soon.
Congratulations! Not really sure how I've found you, but you're one of the few substackers (is that a word?) I really like to follow. I'll definitely become a paying subscriber as soon as things perk up here on my side of the pond. (the postcard idea is amazing, by the way). Keep on writing!
"a sunny day off" - a picture I could have taken myself. Love it.