I want to live like uncommon people
The weeks that were Jul 26th - Aug 22nd
Part of a costume from the Old Court Theatre Museum. Pic by Lars.
Working on…
OMG you guys - don’t tell anyone (you might jinx it) but I’ve actually been drawing in my sketchbook every day for the last three weeks!!! Not only that, but I have a new painting on the easel (that I’m actually working on!!!)!!! I really don’t want to call it too early, but could it be that my (six months and counting😬) “creative fallow period” is over? Watch this space…
One lovely thing that came out of a sketchbook play date was new branding for my beloved monthly vlogs (where I bring you behind the scenes of my life and studio practice) - I’ve brought them all together under the title The Misfit Diaries, which now has its own logo AND a dedicated place in the Haus! It means so much to me to be able to share this stuff with you - not only the BTS ups and downs of my job as an artist, (and all of the ‘inspirational compost’ I gather along the way that informs the art that I make), but also because there aren’t many misfit, freaky, queer, neurodivergent, maximalist, punk, femme, child-free, over-40 artists on YouTube and I wish there were! I guess sometimes you just have to make the stuff you want to see in the world.
You can catch the latest episode of The Misfit Diaries here, and catch up on the story so far over here.
Thinking about…
I was looking for something in my Google Photos the other day and I ended up scrolling through nearly twenty years’ worth of old photos - memes I saved, pages of books with quotes that resonated, inspiration snippets, pictures of me (who is this strange fat blonde woman in all of my selfies?), old friends, old art, events, memories, so many forgotten. It was fascinating - who even was I two, ten, fifteen, twenty years ago? Who am I now? What has stayed and what has disappeared? My taste has changed dramatically, and so has my life, my people, my art, even my appearance is radically different. It struck me how transient and ephemeral our sense of self is - we are always changing and evolving, but most of the time it happens so incrementally that we barely notice. There’s something I find intensely beautiful and liberating about that.
Reading…
The Scholomance Trilogy by Naomi Novik
One of my biggest bugbears with fantasy and sci-fi is when the creators think that world-building counts as a plot. This trilogy does the exact opposite - Novik plunges you into her story at an alarming speed and trusts you to keep up as she builds the world on a ‘need to know’ basis around the central character - who is, deliciously, an alarmingly gifted misfit with the unwitting capacity for catastrophic evil. Loved it.
I’ve also been thoroughly enjoying re-reading Claire Dederer’s Monster because the Books Applied podcast has invited me on to chat about it - I’ve been roaming my house answering imaginary questions about it ever since they asked 🤣. I’ll let you know when the episode comes out in a few weeks.
Watching…
Lars decided it was time for me to watch this 90s sci-fi classic, and as is usual when he tells me I’ll love something, I rolled my eyes and grouched about it (I hate new things), and also as usual, he was absolutely right and it’s now my favourite thing. It’s SO GOOD!!!
Catch up on previous weeks:
