Update #17 - Where I am reminded of the importance of rest, delete my Instagram account, and reconnect with my vision

This is where I share what I’ve been up to behind the scenes to move my art career forward - the good, the bad, and the as-yet-to-be-determined.

Wow - what a month January has been! I have so much to share with you that we should probably just get straight into it, but first I want to share my guiding mantra for 2025 - connect, create, chill. In other words, for me 2025 is all about making art, building community, and taking lots and lots of time to rest. Doesn’t that sound heavenly? Now, let’s get into January…

January’s Rose, Bud, & Thorn

The Rose is something that went well, the Thorn is something that didn’t go so well or is challenging, and the Bud is something that is still percolating…

ROSE

So apparently taking the time to rest means that you have more energy and capacity for doing all the things you want to do - who knew?? I took a much needed three weeks off over Christmas, the final week of which was spent in a cabin in the woods by the sea.

It’s a place we (my lovely husband and I) go whenever we really need a hard reset and this particular week was like an intensive therapy session. We were completely unplugged, and spent our time walking for miles in the freezing cold woods, reading stacks of books, and tending to the wood burner. By the time we came back I felt like the inside of my brain had been scrubbed clean, and I felt lighter and clearer and happier than I had done for months.

This transformative trip (and the new perspective it gave me) led to me making the pretty radical decision to delete my Facebook and Instagram accounts. Those of you who know me will know that this is something I’ve wanted to do for ages, but I’ve always felt like I couldn’t, for whatever reason. But whilst we were away I realised that everything I originally loved these apps for has gone, and they not only do nothing for my business, they’re also a huge distraction from the things that really matter to me.

And, oh my god! Since I deleted my accounts, not only have my mental health, focus, and attention span all improved dramatically, I also have the time and energy to concentrate on being properly connected to my community. I ended up sending dozens of emails out to the people in my network I really wanted to stay connected to (including those I was supposedly connected to on FB or IG) and since then my inbox has been overflowing with love and opportunities and pure joy. It has been an utterly delicious experience, and I’m so excited for all of the interviews and collaborations and other awesome business building stuff that has resulted from my reaching out.

The other thing I’ve been able to start doing again is welcoming the people who sign up for my Studio Letters into my world with a personal video welcome message. I used to do these a lot, and then I got too busy to keep it up, but I’m so happy to be back in the groove of it. It genuinely means the world to me to be invited into your inboxes and I would love to be able to say a personal thank you to each and every one of you, so don’t be surprised if you get a random tiny video ‘hello’ from me at some point.

BUD

Ooh there’s some exciting stuff in the works for the first part of the year! For those of you in Denmark, I’m exhibiting some work at the brand new Ex Libris gallery/cafe space on Lille Kirkestræde in Copenhagen. The show is on until Feb 28th, when there will be a closing event to celebrate. It’s a lovely space, and I recommend popping down to take a look if you’re in town.

I also have another online collection release this month! I’ll be offering pieces from my Je Suis Wibbly Wobbly collection for sale in my online shop from mid-February, and I’m so excited to share them with you! It’s such a colourful and joyful collection, and when I showed them in Copenhagen last year the response was amazing. It’s one of my absolute favourite collections and I hope you love it as much as I do. I’m already working on filming a couple of videos to bring you behind the scenes and tell you all about the stories behind the pieces and the collection as a whole…

Which brings me to my next bud - YouTube! I went so hard on YouTube when I first started and produced a video a week for a about 4 months, which was amazing but omg so exhausting. It took up every ounce of my time and brainspace. So this time around I’m committing to a much more sustainable schedule of one video per month (coming later this week!), and then some ad hoc extra vids when I have the capacity.

I’d love to experiment with doing some more creative film making (and maybe even some animation), but there’s no way I can do that (or anything else) whilst on a weekly YouTube schedule! I was looking back over some of my old videos whilst I was redoing my website last month, and it got me so excited to get back into that space. I can’t wait!

Finally, in my last update I alluded to a new collection I was working on and I have a big chunk of time blocked out in February to work solely on this. I’m very much looking forward to sequestering myself away in the studio and doing nothing but making art for a bit.

THORN

In stark contrast to the last few months, I don’t have anything thorny to share this month. Other than the exhibition being a bit more labour-intensive than I expected, everything has been going swimmingly! Long may it continue.