WHERE Women Create - Spring 2022

INSPIRING WORK SPACES OF EXTRAORDINARY WOMEN

Spring 2022 Display Until May 15, 2022

CREATED BY JO PACKHAM

perfectly

imperfect ARTWORK BY POOKIE BLEZARD

INSPIRING WORK SPACES OF EXTRAORDINARY WOMEN® CREATOR + EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Jo Packham

Design & Editorial GRAPHIC DESIGN Wendy Dunning COPY EDITOR Toni Fitzgerald

NEWSTAND CIRCULATION Weekly Retail Service Thomas Smith | Smith@WeeklyRetailService.com Susan Harold | SH@WeeklyRetailService.com PUBLISHER Madavor Media, LLC 35 Braintree Hill Office Park, Suite 101 Braintree, MA 02184 Madavor.com

How To Contact Us CUSTOMER SERVICE & SUBSCRIPTION INQUIRIES WHERE WOMEN CREATE—Fulco Inc. PO Box 3000, Denville, NJ 07834-3000 844-263-3472 WomenCreateCustService@FulcoInc.com ADVERTISING INQUIRIES WomenCreateAdvertising@Madavor.com SUBMISSION INQUIRIES Submissions@WomenCreate.com WHERE WOMEN CREATE® WINTER ISSUE 21 PUBLISHED 4 TIMES PER YEAR BY: Madavor Media, LLC 35 Braintree Hill Office Park, Suite 101 Braintree, MA 02184 Madavor.com AND WHERE WOMEN CREATE, INC. 221 Historic 25th St. Ogden, UT 84401 WhereWomenCreate.com

POSTMASTER Send address changes to: WHERE WOMEN CREATE—Fulco Inc. PO Box 3000, Denville, NJ 07834-3000 Changes of address must be submitted in writing.

Where Women Create (USPS #000-310) is published quarterly by Madavor Media, LLC, 35 Braintree Hill Office Park, Suite 101 Braintree, MA 02184. Periodicals postage paid at Boston, MA and at additional offices.

Where Women Create® is a registered trademark of Where Women Create, Inc. and may not be used without permission. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written permission from the publisher or Where Women Create Inc. The information contained in this magazine is provided AS IS. Neither Where Women Create, Inc. nor Madavor, nor the publisher, make any representation or warranty with respect to this magazine or the contents thereof and do hereby disclaim all express and implied warranties to the fullest extent permitted by law. Where Women Create, Inc. and the publisher do not endorse any individuals, companies, products, services, or views featured or advertised in this magazine. ©2022 Where Women Create, Inc. all rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced without written permission from the copyright owner.

From a woman’s soul, through a woman’s eyes, by a woman’s hands.®

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CONTENTS

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Features

10 10 Pookie Blezard Pazuki

28 Kim Howard 48 Virginia Abascal Verdeagua Style

62 Adriana Meunié and Jaume Roig 92 Nellie Wortman 106 Wynske de Jong 122 Donna Watson 146 Sarah Golden

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IN EVERY ISSUE 6 From My Kitchen Table Jo Packham

DEPARTMENTS 76 The Men Who Make It Chris van Niekerk

140 Pet Tales

Chloe and Valerie Radford Cox

Kim Howard

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ON THE COVER

FROM MY KITCHEN TABLE in this issue has to be about Madavor Media and what they have committed to creating for all of us …. you and me who are the essence of WOMEN CREATE!

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From the beginning, over 43 years ago, everything I worked to create and accomplish was not about me but about all of you who are so talented … who I so admire and, yes, even envy.

I have never considered myself creative.

Never secure enough in myself to sit down at a table and actually make something that no one else has made before. And because I really am a small-town homegrown girl, I have always been more fascinated by the women, whether they be artists, foodies, writers, or creative in one or more of a hundred different categories, who no one has ever met or even heard of before.

Their stories really are new to us, and they are authentic because they have not been told and retold … and therefore changed in the telling of them.

The first time the story is told, it is the story that the teller remembers. The second time it is told, it is the story that the listener, the writer, remembers … and they are not the same story.

It is like being in a room and passing a secret around the circle. Each member in the circle hears and then tells a different secret.

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I realized, yet again, how important it is to tell your story in your own words regardless of who you are,

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while listening to an interview with Huma Abedin, Traveling Chief of Staff and Assistant to Hillary Clinton during her 2008 presidential campaign and ... the former spouse of Anthony Weiner, the former Democratic Representative in New York’s 9th Congressional District. After all that Huma had endured and her continued silence, she said in a recent interview that her decision to come forward and write a book was so that historically, her story would be told, would be heard, and would be recorded. Her telling of her story, regardless of how difficult a story it is to tell, is simply the continued recognition of the importance that each of us tell our own story in our own words. Because each story, no matter how humble, needs to be recorded accurately because of the profound effect it has on so many, most of whom the story teller will never know.

So, thank you, Jeff, Courtney, and the entire team at Madavor for giving all of us who are WOMEN CREATE the opportunity to continue to tell our stories in our own words with our art and in our studios. You have made our lives better, recorded our history, and legitimized our art. For all of what you have given to us, each of us and all of us together, we are forever grateful.

From our hearts to yours, Jo & the WOMEN who CREATE!

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POOKIE BLEZARD

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Photography by Emma Cassi

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The house has a feeling of history; 12 WHERE WOMEN CREATE | ISSUE 18

POOKIE BLEZARD, the designer of her own clothing brand, Pazuki, works from a house by Barnes Common in South West London, the house where she was born. Her parents, who were both musicians, moved there because it was an inexpensive backwater full of artists and musicians, eccentric families with feral children that wandered in and out of each other’s houses and roamed freely through the woods.

This continuity and sense of place and proximity to nature is interwoven into the designer’s work.

walls have been stripped back to reveal fragments of its past, there’s been no plan, and it has all developed organically in a very personal way. It was stuffed full when I inherited it 20 years ago, and I’ve just kept the things I like. That includes a few family treasures from a colonial past on my mother’s side and the kitchen table from my grandfather’s house, where, as a small child, I listened to tales of snakes in the Sudan, fighting in the trenches, the north-west frontier of India.

That has given me a strong sense of history. On my father’s side, we are descended from Huguenot silk weavers fleeing religious persecution in 17th century France, and my grandmother worked in a cotton mill in Lancashire. I’m proud I have textiles woven into my blood.

One advantage of raw walls is that I can stick up paintings with gaffer tape, and when they fall down or fall apart, I stick up something else. I like this flexibility and have only a few permanent fixtures, some large, impactful oil paintings by my ex-husband, Jovica Jocic, and 19th-century Chinese embroideries inherited from my great uncle, who lived in Shanghai. I’m passionate about dragons and love having them watch over me.

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The velvets and linens used have been 15 WhereWomenCreate.com

printed on a wide-format printer housed at the bottom of the garden. It’s actually hard to commit to using prints for my house as I’m always into the next thing I haven’t actually done yet! I’ve only got curtains at all because a boyfriend complained and forced me to make some. My colours are very earthy. I always like a bit of mud in them—pure, clean colours offend me, unless in small amounts!

I don’t like anything to be obviously arranged; it’s hard to explain, sort of random, but in a way that pleases me. I have an anti-perfection rule and I hate style fascism, I always think a bit of bad taste is healthy.

The garden is small and a wild tangle

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with a space in the middle I go to when I’m upset or stuck and in need of inspiration.

I’m no gardener, too impatient and lacking the necessary nurturing skills, so I let it do its own thing. I believe we attract the plants that we need to heal us, so if burdock or thistle want to grow, I let them, and dandelions and buttercups grow everywhere. I never cut the grass as I love the different grasses and meadow flowers, and my black and white foundling cat, Maisie, loves it too.

Occasionally, I get help to do things like cut back the wisteria before it strangles me, done by someone who understands my live-and-letlive policy.

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AWAY BY TH E

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infinite beauty A N D endless inspiration OF N ATURE .

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I studied textiles at Camberwell School of Art and Crafts in London—we developed our ideas from drawing, collaging. We made our own silk screens, mixed dyes, and cut lino blocks.

Encouraged to experiment, we were like sorcerers’ apprentices: boiling up recipes in steam-filled workshops, printing with evil-smelling pastes that would burn out the base colour and replace it with a luminous colour, waiting anxiously by the giant steamer to see what magic had taken place as the fabric came out and was unrolled, or sometimes it had it all gone horribly wrong. We learnt about natural dyes, Devoré velvet, paper making; it was hard to leave. All I wanted to do was to carry on printing, so that’s what I did, with my friend Suzy, in my parents’ attic.

We did all sorts of things: sold fabric to Timney Fowler’s shop in Portobello, worked on prints for Paul Smith’s menswear collections with quirky

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pictorial themes. We whizzed all over London with rolls of fabric strapped to our motorbikes, but things only really took off once we started showing in Paris, with queues of buyers ordering our shirts and scarves in patchworks made from discharge printed silks in soft, earthy colours mixed with Devoré velvet. Timing is everything, and we were making this burn-out velvet before everyone else caught on. Judy Collinson from Barneys bought masses of them for their new Madison Avenue store, and they sold out in three days. She said, “It wasn’t a question of whether to buy one or not, but which one,” as they were all one-offs.

I parted company with Suzy after 11 years and carried on, purchasing an early digital printer and taking my printed fabric out to India to be embroidered, sitting with skilled craftsmen who made my prints 3-dimensional, with subtle mixes of threads, beads, and ribbons. I made rich hippy clothes that I sold through an agent in New York. I look back at some of these pieces now in my archives and wonder what I was on. The work and creativity that went into them was extraordinary, and I never cared how expensive the fabric or lace I used was.

At the same time, I was developing my own technique of patchwork here in London in my workshop, sandwiching scraps of fabric between water-soluble film and stitching the hell out of it to hold it all together before washing away the film.

Every scrap can be used, and it creates a beautiful story of textures and colour. I’ve done every conceivable variation with this technique and have a strong following in Japan, where I met a customer who owned over 40 of my scarves.

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I can never bear to waste any fabric.

I’ve been re-cycling, up-cycling, everythingcycling ever since I was a child. I sat in the attic for hours sewing tiny pieces of fabric together and once annoyed everyone in the household by cutting all the labels out of their clothes so I could sew them together.

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“ H U M A N J OY I S TH E MOST P OWE RFUL OF TH I N GS I ’ V E SE EN.

I’m amazed by it. WH E N YOU H AV E TRUE J OY I N YOU R B E I N G , YO U BECOME TH I S RA DI CA L FORCE , TH I S E NTI TY T HAT I S S O M U C H LA RG E R TH A N YOUR BODY, A N D AT TH AT P O INT, YO U C A N C H ANG E A NYTH I NG .” — DR . ZAC H BUSH

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I’ve been through many phases,

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and always you have to change, especially working in fashion. Designers all seem to tune into a creative collective soup, at the same time going down our own wormholes. My latest exploration is through still-life painting. I was doing a lot of photographic collages and decided I wanted to get away from the digital image and create more personal prints, which had marks made by my hand, brush marks, smudges. Colours mixed on a palette with paint squeezed out of tubes. As with my house, I like to leave things a bit rough; if I get too perfectionist, it loses something. I enjoy making design repeats a bit irregular, I suppose like Persian carpets are made deliberately not square.

As they say, only Allah makes things perfectly. I always think imperfect is more perfect, and I find it more interesting, more personal, more human.

All my prints are now from my oil paintings, which I photograph, collage, and then digitally print, mostly onto silk for my clothing collection. Recently, I decorated a dining room in The Mandrake Hotel in London with a large-scale repeating blow-up of one of my flower paintings onto heavy cotton canvas, and I am now working on a project for a café in Regent’s Park to cover the walls in roses I painted from their famous rose garden.

I think my ambition is to be more me, to express some essence that can be enjoyed by others, that either by wearing my clothes or immersing themselves in my wall coverings, they can express their own creativity and individuality.

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More on Pookie

www.Pazuki.co.uk Facebook: pazukiltd Instagram: pazuki_london

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Through the LENS

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More on Emma

www.EmmaCassi.com Instagram: SilkByEmmaCassi

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EMMA CASSI is an embroidery and jewelry artist and photographer, originally from France. She is based in Windsor UK, where she has been living with her family since 2016. She works in her home studio and also studies herbalism, growing herbs and plants in her garden. Just a few minutes from her home is Windsor Great Park, where she finds most of her inspiration. Emma is a self-taught embroiderer; she studied art at Beaux-Arts in Dijon and has recently received a coveted prize from Hand and Lock.

Kim Howard Photography by Sharon Payne Bolton and Gavin “Wyatt” Payne

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When she asked to move back

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to her birthplace of Sun Valley, we pulled ourselves up by our paintbrushes and relocated to

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the land of mountains, lakes, and forests in Idaho to build what has become a true art studio-home base. The time was full as a parent, entering art festivals with watercolor paintings, acrylic floorcloths, hand-

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painted paper parasols, teaching privately, and continuing to illustrate children’s books.

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The Idaho home-studio became the next art project, with recycled oak flooring, wooden doors, dozens of windows, an antique porcelain farm sink, refectory cabinets, claw-foot bathtub, and bathroom fixtures.

Within 6 months, my daughter and I had our new up-cycled nest. French mattress fabrics were sewn into new curtains for cabinets and windows. Today our

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French artisan chandelier hangs above the table that welcomes gatherings of dinner

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guests, artists, and students.

This familiar light shines upon new art projects throughout every season of the past 11 years. A sewing machine sits ready for stitching collage

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papers or Japanese fabrics for art student bags.

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Assorted workstations flow through the house and spill into the garden and porch.

Our tree house brings birdsong and filtered

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light so that every day is a new palette of possibility. Flowerpots adorn the upper deck, while the pear and apple trees bear their fruit, providing sustenance for fruit pies.

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This Idaho home moves through the seasons, between times spent with doors wide open in the summer, gardening, and drawing in a variety of locations under the trees or on the upper covered porch. Summer nights, I can be out in the elements and be protected by my willow fencing and cozy covers.

The simple chores, from snow removal to weeding, allow reflective

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time while being a part of nature in a way that continues to nurture my imagination. I will often pause to take a quick photo of the sky or a closeup of a budding flower to be used in a project that always awaits me upon my long wooden tables.

There is a natural rhythm of work that begins

It is a delight to share the comforts

when the birds wake and then slows down when the

that my home-studio embodies, with her

sun goes over the western mountains. Regular home-

18th-century duvet covers transformed

studio tours welcome patrons, students, friends, and

into curtains to frame and give poetic

newcomers to create, discuss, and purchase art that

contrast to the shelves of colorful chaos of

lights up the stairwell and walls of my home. When I

a collector. Nature provides real art from

am not traveling, travelers can come to me through

birds’ nests and more sea glass with woven

Airbnb rentals, and when I venture overseas for

rugs from Norway, and all those quirky

winters, my whole house can be rented and enjoyed.

found objects that make my landscape me.

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The birds become subjects for art

Being a family required that we be more in one

pieces fashioned from folding 1910

stable place. The Philadelphia dog show hired me,

Harvard classic books.

resulting in commissions for painting hundreds of

At this time, I begin to back-pedal into my travel journals, seeing them as my

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dogs.

These could be painted between meals and hikes,

beacon of creative wishes: new forms of

with my daughter and dog. As an artist, I find myself

art journaling, layered with ticket stubs,

creating from the life that is in the present, and this

souvenirs, natural materials, and maps

time period led to a prolific period of portrait work

adding new stacks of life experiences

of animals, children, and families, customized into

through art.

another series of Christmas cards.

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my rucksack, I am a mobile-world-art-studio.

Yesterday’s morning beachcombing made my home-away-from-home a winter studio retreat of productivity. Today these treasures adorn my Idaho studio and continue to warm me with fond memories of that colorful community.

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With art supplies and journal tucked into

As my daughter grew, I started to travel once again. The warmth and color of Mexico drew me from the long cold winters of Idaho. Volunteer work initially allowed me to connect and give to the community of San Pancho. I was sponsored and housed during the winters of 2010-2016 by Entreamigos (entreamigos.org.mx), a community non-profit providing classes in computer and language development

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and recycling, along with Gilles SteCroix, founder of Circo de los Ninos (circodelosninosdesanpancho.mx/

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en) and the famous Cirque du Soleil. I contributed to the program by painting murals and making costumes for the circus fundraiser after a hurricane had swept through the Nayarit region.

We all worked together as a

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community to create a children’s book from the village children’s art in order to further help with the repairs and clean-up.

These souvenirs provide references for larger paintings and commissioned pieces. The journals are my muses and my legacy.

To me, watercolor portraits of those we love mean more than any art I create or collect. My favorite painting is of my daughter, Ameila. I can paint a watercolor portrait for you from a favorite photograph; simply contact me at: kimhow111@gmail.com.

The travel journal will continue to unfold. This autumn, I begin a new chapter in a year 1755 flat in Edinburgh, Scotland, where I will create my next studio-home. I have sewn more new-from-old fabrics for duvet covers, hot pads, and pillowcases. My bags are packed with clothing essentials and hungry blank journal pages, fresh and ready for the sea air of fresh inspirations.

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Join me as I branch out and curate art travel can follow me on Facebook or Instagram for updates of travels, work for sale, or to contact me to collaborate with your own “joie de vivre” travel-journal-art-adventure.

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More on Kim

www.KimHowardArt.com Instagram: KimHowardArt Facebook: KimHow111

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excursions from Scotland to France in 2022. You

Through the LENS

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SHARON PAYNE BOLTON is a mixed media artist that also loves to capture moments and imagery with her camera in and out of her studio. Sharon was the photographer of Kim’s cover image.

47 actor currently living in L.A. While he primarily focuses on voice acting, Wyatt has experience in photography, directing, writing, and video editing.

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More on Sharon and Wyatt

www.SharonPayneBolton.com Instagram: SharonPayneBolton, GavinWPayne

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GAVIN “WYATT” PAYNE is an

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Photography by Tatiana Pankratof

Virginia Abascal is a jewelry designer and mother, and lives in Madrid, Spain.

She likes to get lost in a new place and discover it. She is a traveler and is fascinated and amazed by life.

She admires natural pigments, frayed fabrics, baskets, earthenware, and everything she can find while walking in the countryside or at the coast. She is a beauty & inspiration collector and a treasure hunter. She believes we all have the power to connect with what makes us alive and inspires us to create and that if we take time to listen to our heart and start where we are, we will flow within ourselves. She often says, “You don’t have to be perfect, and you should learn by admiring others.

Open your eyes and see all the beauty around you.”

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One of the best things

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in the world are pockets. Pockets are the place where I used to put the shells or the flowers that I found at the beach or in the countryside. Even today, I have a little box where I still have some of these treasures that I collected when I was seven or eight years old. This has taken me to where I am today. And I am so grateful that there are no words to express it.

I consider myself a bit of a nomad, a hunter of beauty, and I definitely need to be surrounded by nature and my inspirational objects to connect with my real essence. It sometimes feels as if I am in this world to return to it all the inspiration I feel.

My father was an artist. He painted and was a sculptor. He had a studio overflowing with brushes, boxes with papers, canvas, paint. My mother took my sister and me traveling all over the globe since I was a very young age. I loved getting lost in the markets of Jaipur or Marrakesh, and I was, indeed, attracted by the colorful crafts of all those different cultures we visited. Somehow, we are all always linked a bit to what we see and feel when we are growing, at least in my case.

I lived in Amsterdam and in England, and I wanted to change the world to make it a better place for its people and our wilderness. But I had a creative energy that never disappeared, and one day I decided to leave a job that did not make me happy, change my life. and create my own jewelry brand.

That is how I founded Verdeagua Style in 2008.

I am a dreamer, a very enthusiastic person, and also I am very sensitive. I am a bit chaotic, but I find balance in my personal chaos. I am a collector of beauty and a forager.

I dreamed of having my own brand and being my own boss, which would allow me to be closer to my children, and it would allow me to find a path to follow my creative innate desire to return to the world the inspiration it gave me.

The jewels I design are a fusion of my love for other cultures, for nature and the dream of making a woman feel special and beautiful.

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I believe imperfection is a gift. I am sustainable in all that is possible. I never throw away a broken gem; it has a place of its own, always. I truly believe that business needs to get into sustainability. We need to contribute to fix the planet.

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I did not study fashion design or jewelry design; my creative process is very personal. The gems and materials talk to me, I follow their colors, and I dream of creating pieces that do not follow trends. I believe a jewel is a jewel always, and it gains value as time passes by.

I started working from home,

but soon I realized I needed a place of my own, a place near nature that gave me so much energy. Now I also have a space at home to create, but my studio in the countryside is my temple.

After a long time searching, I found a little destroyed barn that had been the shelter for newborn sheep and harvested hay. It was in a serene village about a one-hour drive from Madrid, just by the mountains, where the air is clean, and the color of the light is impossible to describe in words.

There you witness the change of seasons intensively, you can go for a walk and collect flowers or benches, you can hear the birds and lose track of time watching the clouds.

It is a space of about 35 square meters; the outside is made of stones and the roof of terracotta tiles. I do not need a bigger place. This is more than enough, and it is magical.

I know how privileged I am to have a place like this to work and do what I am passionate about.

In my studio, I am surrounded by raw countryside, cows, and sheep, and hear the birds and the wings of the storks when they come in the spring. It’s a tiny village near the Roman old town of Segovia. When I am there, I let my inner child flow. I design, I paint, I let my imagination fly.

I am truly me, with no judgment, with no masks.

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In this studio, I keep my

most treasured objects, such as my collection of ethnic textiles, my wood spoons, or handmade notebooks. I have endless bowls and boxes with my materials for designing. An important part is my set of aquarelles. Just playing with the water and seeing the pigments run is magical.

Dried flowers and shells are everywhere, along with stones or branches from my walks.

These treasures come from my travels but also just from a walk in the countryside. They inspire me to create. The blue of a box from India can result in an extraordinary necklace.

My jewels are based on feelings and emotions.

Eclectic. That is how I would define it.

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“Let yourself be silently drawn by the strange pull of what you really love.

It will not lead you astray.” — Rumi

I have 2 big wood tables

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I now have another arm of my business that has my name, and this is where I consult and assist brands to enhance and elevate their communications. It is not about fancy expensive shoots or an expensive agency running your business; for me, it is about going deep in your authenticity as a creator, as a brand. I created a methodology to help other brands. And I love it. Nothing makes me happier than seeing my clients being able to show the world their unique art, their true essence, and make this talent a job that fulfills you.

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where I display all that I need when I create. Then, these materials go back to their boxes, as I also need some empty view. It is a journey from more to less.

Just being there is like therapy. I believe a creative life can heal your soul. This is what happens to me. Of course, there have been many moments where I wanted to quit with my business and run away from all the troubles sometimes one can have when having their own brand. But somehow now I look back, and it is nearly 15 years since that day.

I am at a point of life where I am so proud of what I have achieved. This is a great feeling.

Being in my studio with a cup of chai tea or a lemonade, feeling that the city is far away, fulfills me immensely. I can also let my disappointments arise and cry. My studio in the countryside is my shelter, my parachute.

One of the things that scares me the most is to wake up in the morning and not be inspired to create. Losing the enthusiasm to be alive. Of course, I have days that are not creative; it is important also to be able to rest, and as a creative mind, I can be restless. I have learned through the years to rest, and it is OK to do nothing as well.

This is a balance with all the creative energy I am able to generate.

I used to wholesale, but now I only sell online. I also attended international fairs such as the one in Paris. I had my jewels in many cities in the world.

But I realized I wanted to create less pieces and more special ones. Most of my jewels are unique pieces. I have very loyal clients and new ones that come. Because of my business studies and major in marketing, I create inspiring content for my audience that really connects. This, together with the quality of jewels and their originality, made my work be featured in magazines such as ELLE, Vogue, Condé Nast Traveler, In Style, Woman …

There was a point where I was invited to talk about my jewels and my brand. I realized I could help other brands achieve what I had created. For me, my brand is a continuous journey, but if I could help other creators to communicate as I had done (and be successful), a new opportunity opened up.

I never stop learning. I am curious. It is this that keeps me going every day.

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More on Virginia

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www.VerdeaguaStyle.com, www.VirginiaAbascal.com Instagram: VerdeaguaStyle Pinterest: pinterest.es/VerdeAguaStyle

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Close your eyes and think of all the good things that you have created. Whatever they are.

Keep these thoughts in your mind when you are sad. Or take a pen and a paper and write.

Or paint. Or sing or dance. Find a way to reconnect with you again. No hurry. But try, and you will most likely achieve it. Happiness does not exist just like that. Happiness is overcoming the problems and allowing yourself to enjoy simple, present moments such as the color of a flower or a hug.

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Through the LENS

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Tatiana loves traveling. Nothing else gives her that feeling of being herself. Traveling with a camera to capture those moments that will stay forever alive is her mantra.

Taking photos is like fuel for this young woman who lives in Madrid and is originally from Romania.

It is not her main job, but she really enjoys taking photos of creative people or cities. Tatiana likes watching them, creating and capturing the essence of creator.

It is inspiring for her. It pushes her to the unknown. These moments teach her to see the world in a different and more complete way.

Tatiana is a nature lover; being in nature is healing for her. She loves styling, too.

She never goes traveling without her camera.

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Instagram: Tatiana.Pankratof

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More on Tatiana

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Photography by

Anna Malmberg Styled and Curated by

Mari Strenghielm

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ADRIANA MEUNIÉ

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and JAUME ROIG

Here, far out in the Mallorcan countryside, JAUME AND ADRIANA live with their cat and two dogs. Jaume works as an artist and potter and Adriana as a textile artist. Both have their studios at home in the little house where they have been living for a couple of years. They previously lived and worked together in Palma but have now moved out in the country, and they both work so much better here with the silence and proximity to nature as company and inspiration.

ADRIANA

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Jaume and I first met many years ago in a completely different context. At that time, I had a place where I used to go, close to my hometown. It was a stream that swirled through magical nature. This place was very close to where Jaume lived, and we met each other sometimes. We used to admire the nature and the creek, and these moments have a very special place in our hearts because the area is now exploited by tourism, and the magic is long gone. But it wasn’t until many years later that we met again and fell in love with each other.

We became a couple and moved in together in a common studio in Palma, where we stayed for a couple of years, but we nurtured a common longing for a simpler and quieter life, a life beyond the noise of the city. After looking for a while, we found this house to rent.

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The house has a simple standard, but we don’t see this as a problem; on the contrary. Not being dependent on a certain material standard gives a huge sense of freedom, a sense of satisfaction.

We love to work here in the tranquility overlooking nothing but nature.

It doesn’t matter if it gets messy; we can carry on working and clear up when we are done. Work and privacy flow together in symbiosis.

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JAUME

ADRIANA

Working with clay is messy and gooey and dusty as it dries, and it’s not much better with the textile art with all the fibers of fabrics, laces, and wool that I use. Having our studios here and being able to work from home fits us perfectly.

We don’t lose a lot of time traveling, we have all our tools and materials here in one place, and we love it. We have our own areas here at home, so we actually don’t see each other much during working hours, although we can consult each other if we need to. But otherwise, we stay in our respective work rooms.

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Despite the simplicity, we are extremely interested in interior decoration, and this house is just so simple and fun to decorate. For us, our home is our temple, and this is where we need to feel good. When Jaume has finished working on a piece, he wants it on display in our home. He wants to be able to look at it properly, so he changes the interior in order for the artwork to look its best. For my part, I seek simplicity, emptiness, which we both appreciate and have as a basic idea when it comes to interior design. Maybe it comes from the aesthetics of the old houses here in Mallorca. They were always very empty; you just owned the most necessary items. All things have a special function, and then everything becomes meaningful.

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oth of us work with various clients around the world, and we’re both currently finishing off some orders. Jaume works with his paintings and with his sculptural ceramics.

I am a textile artist, and I weave wall decorations of natural materials, preferably reused ones.

For example, I have a collaboration with a neighbor who is a sheep farmer. He gives me wool for my work. The farmer gives me a call when it’s time to fetch the wool, and after that, I wash it thoroughly and prepare it so that I can use it in my work. Right now, I am also working on a fashion project, a collection of durable clothes made out of vintage cotton. The collection was just completed, so now it’s time to launch it.

Our privacy and working life are completely interwoven right now, and we really love to live like this with total creative freedom. For us, the goal is to always keep working and exploring the materials, to work out what works better next time, and next, and next …

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More on Adriana and Jaume AdrianaMeunie.wordpress.com JaumeRoigCeramica.wordpress.com Instagram: AdrianaMeunie_Textilework, JaumeRoig_Ceramics

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Through the LENS

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ANNA MALMBERG was born in 1981 and was raised in the north of Sweden where she got her aesthetic eye from her artist parents. She began her own career as a photographer in Paris in 2010. She had several exhibitions in Sweden, Italy and Taiwan.

In 2014, she moved back to Stockholm with her French fiancé and their son. There she got to know stylist Mari Strenghielm thanks to their common interest in interior decoration. Their love for natural light, places with a historic soul, natural materials and travels made them as a perfect team.

In the summer of 2020, she and her family followed their dream to live in a warmer climate, near nature and the Mediterranean sea. They moved to an old house in a village in Languedoc in the south of France where they now live.

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More on Anna

www.AnnaMalmbergPhoto.com Instagram: AnnaMalmbergPhoto Pinterest: pinterest.se/MalmbergPhoto

THE MEN WHO MAKE IT

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CHRIS van NIEKERK

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Production by Sven Alberding Photography by Warren Heath/Bureaux

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Curated by Lori Cohen

A BOTANIST TURNED ARTIST IN SOUTH AFRICA’S CAPE WINELANDS, CHRIS VAN NIEKERK CREATES LIFELIKE INSECTS USING THE DECAYED AND PRESERVED NATURAL MATERIALS HE FORAGES.

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butterfly’s antenna is clubshaped with a long shaft and a bulb at the point.

The end of the style of an African protea flower happens to look identical. As a botanical artist, I believe my work is all about finding these examples of similitude in nature. Using leaves, seeds and other plant materials, I meticulously combine and assemble them, metamorphosing my foraged finds into insect forms.

I call my insects eco-skeletons; it’s a wordplay on the exoskeleton of a beetle. In my studio, the walls are crawling with my “insects”—from scorpions to green-winged butterflies—all handmade, through my obsessive creative vision.

One, a wild-looking bee with a downy abdomen, has a lifelike striped abdomen made from individual grass seeds I placed with precision over many hours to mimic delicate body hairs. Next to it, a butterfly has wings fashioned from pressed leaves, the pulp removed to expose the veins to resemble the structure of a wing.

Sometimes the materials I choose will dictate the artwork, such as my butterfly with its leafy green wings. They began life as magnolia leaves, which I processed to remove the pulp, leaving the fine veins of the leaf exposed like a carcass, only to find a second life as a wing on one of the eco-skeletons. It also works the other way around where I make a drawing of the insect, breaking it down into its components, and then I look for materials to create it.

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am surrounded by inspiration. In my studio, natural elements are dried, pressed and sometimes coloured using handmade vegetable dyes or charcoal. I am constantly tinkering with various plants in stages of decay and preservation, some of which take weeks to process.

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’ve always been a collector, but the previous lives of all the objects in my studio, not just the plant materials, contribute equally to my work. The rugged workbench in the heart of the studio, the antique crafts tools I use, and medical journals from the 1930s used to press leaves form part of my creative ecosystem. There’s a flow of energy and exchange between the pages and the plants and the wood and the insects that are part of the process.

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y studio is crammed with bottles containing the medium for my work—seeds, leaves and other unidentifiable fragments of flower anatomy, painstakingly collected and catalogued. I forage a lot. The fynbos plant kingdom we have in the Western Cape offers a lot of possibilities. They are tough and textured.

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channel the same contentment I felt roaming the arid landscapes of my youth.

Having studied horticulture, I went on to practice as a horticulturist for six years. However, the desire to create was strong, and I moved on to launch an events company renowned for its conceptual spaces and massive flower and décor installations. It was a transitional time between Chris-the-horticulturist and where I am most comfortable to identify now as an artist.

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have always been fascinated by the shapes and textures of flora and, even as a child, saw plants not as individual elements but as something bigger in context with space. I grew up in the rural Free State, the youngest of three brothers, where the farm was my playground. A quiet, introspective child, I would collect thorns from trees and make patterns in the sand. When I make my insects, I

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he installations I created had a beginning and an end. I longed to create something more permanent. A decade later, I have conceived an entirely different habitat for my work. My home and studio are nestled in a cottage that is part of a historical rural homestead in the heart of winemaking country.

These days, I find satisfaction in creating pieces on a small scale, attracted to the challenge and limitations of a process that requires extreme concentration, creativity, and patience. I’m obsessed with detail. One piece could take me up to four days to make, sitting for hours at a time with tweezers and magnifiers. Making them to scale, or entomologically correct, doesn’t interest me. I use reference books as a starting point, but I’m not trying to replicate particular species. It’s about creating a piece of beauty.

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More on Chris

Instagram: ChrisVanNiekerkBotanical

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Through the LENS Warren Heath is originally from Durban, South Africa, where he studied photography for 3 years. He has been living in Cape Town for the last 11 years and photographs some of Africa’s most beautiful homes.

He believes that photographs should tell a story, whether it’s a delicious plate of food or someone’s warm home, a beautiful place in the country or even

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just a simple portrait. He thinks you can tell a lot of great stories with simple, beautiful pictures. Warren

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gets daily inspiration from his natural surroundings and the beautiful landscape of Africa. He suggests, “We get caught up in the everyday craziness of modern life and forget what is really going on around

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us. Take a step back, breathe, and have a good look!”

More on Warren

www.Bureaux.co.za

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Nellie

Wortman

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is a mixed media artist, instructor, mother, wife, nana to 2 grandkids and 2 grand pups and co-owns a trucking company with her husband. Her work involves merging past remnants with the present. She creates pieces that reveal a message or story through the reworking of vintage and everyday items.

Her pieces will draw you in, feeling as if you are telling a piece of their message or story, and have you leave wanting more.

She believes that everywhere she goes in this life, her footprints leave bits of fragrances of her journey and existence.

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have been creating art for over 25 years. To know me and how I have become the artist that I am today, you would need to know where I came from.

I had a lot to overcome from my childhood. My childhood is similar to many others that have had to deal with an abusive parent. As a young girl, I always knew that what I experienced in my childhood was not how my story would end. That each day was up to me to decide how I chose to view it, and if today was my last day on this earth, was I happy in how I chose to make the best of a bad situation?

I was determined, from an early age, to change history for the generations to come. It was through my faith that gave me the strength and courage to overcome this. From an early age, I have always been drawn towards nature, animals, found objects, sticks, paths, doorways, etc. As a young girl, I found peace among nature’s elements.

You will see these elements show up in my work. Some are hidden, while others are more clear to see. I believed from an early age that everyone has something unique about who they are to offer this world. Some find it right away; others find it along their journey of life. I also felt early on that it’s our job as humans to lift others up, not tear them down. Little did I know how much this belief from my childhood would play a big part in how I create as an artist.

I never thought or felt comfortable to call myself an artist in the beginning, for I had an art teacher in school that told everyone in class that I had no business being in her class, for I didn’t have any artistic ability. Feeling crushed, I tucked away and hid this artistic part of me away for years and never explored art. It wasn’t until after our 3rd child that I wanted to find a way to give back to our community, and in doing so, I started to make handmade cards. I made them for a local hospital that would give them to patients that didn’t have any family that came to visit.

It was from there that it progressed into others wanting to buy my art, which had me traveling to teach and eventually teaching online classes. I finally had felt that I was moving in the right direction of pursuing my art. Little did I realize that life was about to send me in another direction. I was in my early 30s when I had a major impact on my life.

I had emergency gall bladder surgery. Upon waking up, I told numerous doctors that something didn’t feel right. They claimed that I was lucky to be alive. As much as I was thankful, I knew something wasn’t right.

I am not what happened to me; I am what I choose to become.

— Unknown

something so profound in my life shifted my perspective on my art. In my earlier years of being an artist, I was drawn towards creating dark, grunge, old, tattered, vintage and recycled looks, which I loved. As I started to relearn everyday tasks and regain memories again, I found myself wanting to create something more with a lightness, freshness and color to it, along with implementing the old, tattered, recycled and vintage looks.

Finding that balance between all of that was a little bit of a struggle, but I am not one to pull away from a challenge. I spent hours in my studio experimenting and practicing until I felt that what I created spoke these things, along with my voice or message within the piece. It was through the hours of being in my studio practicing and finding my inner creative voice again that I realized that it was OK to become this new yet different type of artist. That I never really lost the old version of me, but that life happened, and it helped me to evolve into who I am now.

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Long story short, over a 4-1/2-year period, my brain started to shut down. Specialists said that it was impossible with the numerous tests that they ran. Towards the end of the 4th year, and after seeing numerous doctors, I was starting the beginning stages of Alzheimer’s. Even with all of that, doctors still insisted that it was impossible. It wasn’t until the end of my 4th year that neuro-feedback doctors found the answer, but they weren’t sure if they could help me at this point. They stated that I had been telling the truth all along, but having so much time pass by before I could get to them, they were not sure if they could do anything. That within 30 days or so, I would be in a nursing home.

It was in that moment of clarity that I stated this to them: “You are not God, and you do not get to determine my destiny, and until God brings me home, I am going to get everything back, and if I am still here, then I still have a purpose here on earth.”

Now, 11 years later, I have regained about 95% of everything back. I found that having to experience

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believe that each step that I take in this life is taking me one step closer to who I was always meant to be. Within my art, I use symbolism. I feel that buttons are like family and friends. They hold us together when we have bad days or life hits us.

Fabrics are comfort to me. It’s like coming home after a long day and needing something to wrap around me to make me feel all warm and safe.

Words hold meaning and power. They can lift us in our darkest hour but also give us light to find our way through things. Paper is a way that allows me to record the written word, message or stories.

Photos are a way that allows me to capture a memory that I can revisit over and over again. Wood, sticks, feathers, etc., are my connection to nature, which reminds me of peace and to always remain a child at heart, regardless of what life throws at me. Metal, to me, is my faith …

With all of these symbols, I am drawn to creating books that are like a time capsule. They give us a place to record a moment or memory and the ability to be able to come back to it at a later time and revisit those memories from the past. My love for old, worn-out, tattered, vintage and recycled pieces came into play early on.

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found that sometimes, society had a way of making you feel that if you were from the wrong side of the tracks, didn’t come from money, were past a certain age, dressed a certain way or acted a certain way, made mistakes, etc., that you were either ignored or that your value was less than others. I found this to be so sad and wrong. It was through my pieces of art that I wanted to show the world that even though these old, tattered, vintage, recycled pieces might

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not be of value in their original shape, by reworking them, I could give them a new life and sense of purpose.

It is through my pieces of art that I want the viewer to feel hope, faith, a sense of connection and that anything is possible if you just believe and don’t give up. I have always loved this saying: “A bird sitting on a tree is never afraid of the branch breaking because its trust is not on the branch but is on its own wings. Always believe in yourself.” (Attribution unknown.)

I am known for making books. I have made well over 1,000 books in my 25+ years as an artist. The majority of my books have been sold. I have only a handful of them for personal use. I’ve been asked many times, how am I able to let my books go. I feel that, as the artist, I am creating a piece that allows you to hold your memories. A piece that allows you to capture your moments, messages or stories. Many will purchase my books but leave them as-is and display them as a piece of art. Regardless of what they choose to do with them, I am honored to be part of their journey.

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hen I am not creating books, you will find me making handmade bezels, Christmas ornaments, paintings or wall hangings. I can say without a doubt that it was worth pushing myself each step of the way to find who I am today. Each day, I find myself evolving into the artist that I am meant to be for that day. I look forward to seeing what tomorrow holds. The possibilities are endless.

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In regard to my studio, I surround myself with things that inspire me. This creates an environment that helps in my creative process. Upon entering my doors to my studio, I am surrounded with pale yellow/almost white walls and white wooden ceilings. This allows me to come into my studio and immediately feel like I am inhaling a breath of fresh air.

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Only from the heart can you touch the sky.

— Rumi

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have windows and a slider that open up and give me fresh air and allow me to hear the birds chirping. My old wooden tables are from overseas and within the US. I have columns that remind me of another era, stone vases/bowls that reflect Paris or France, old wooden and wire storage pieces that hold pieces from my travels to Italy, France and within the US. I have an old hardware wooden cubby piece that holds different media. Whenever I find myself feeling overwhelmed by too many elements in my studio, I will rearrange my studio and find ways to put away a lot of my supplies, so they are out of sight. To me, this is like starting on a fresh canvas; the possibilities are endless.

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More on Nellie

www.NelliesCreativeTouch.com Blog: EarlyMorningThoughts.typepad.com/my_weblog Instagram: Wortman_n Etsy: etsy.com/shop/NellieWortman Pinterest: Vintage123

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sharing with the world. It is through my

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Wynske DE JONG Photography by Sonja Velda

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WYNSKE DE JONG is an artist and she lives with her family in a detached house on the waterfront in Friesland, in the Netherlands, surrounded by green fields. Her modern warehouse blends perfectly with the scenery on the outskirts of Akkrum.

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During a walk, I found the birch trunks.

I attached them to the beams. I made the felt rugs myself.

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y husband was born and raised in Akkrum and is one of the owners of a marina and water sports company in the village. A few years ago, we had the opportunity to build a house near the marina and drew up some building plans with my uncle Jan Bart de Jong, who was the architect. We wanted a cool house that suited the environment, something like a barn, a shed, or a warehouse. My uncle was able to elaborate on our ideas in a fantastic way.

We wanted to live upstairs, like in a loft, in a large space and with views all around, like a lighthouse. There’s a terrace built over the garage, so we can sit out there if we want. It didn’t take long to get used to living on the first floor. Apart from the beautiful view of the meadows, privacy is a big advantage.

In summer, it’s busy and lively at the marina; in winter, we enjoy the silence.

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The lamp with the felt cover is one of my works of art.

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e’re more aware of the different seasons now.

We get that great holiday feeling in the summer and enjoy total peace and quiet in winter. All that space, the fields, and the water give us a real sense of freedom.

The house was built using reliable and robust materials. The exterior of the house is finished in wood; the inside is made of stone. The rafters are visible in the living area. The house has screed floors. The use of color is simple: black, white, and shades of gray. It’s a nice house to live in. The house doesn’t feel new. Because of the layout and the materials used, it has a lot of atmosphere. As if it has been here for years.

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n the ground floor are three bedrooms, a bathroom, and the studio. Our kitchen and living area are on the first floor.

Our staircase, which the architect placed it in the middle of the house, is very special to our family lifestyle. It splits the house in two so that the living rooms are situated around the stairs in a U shape. It is light and spacious due to the windows we had installed in the stairwell and skylights in the roof near the staircase also allow daylight in from that side. It is perfect and very practical for our family, especially when the kids want to watch TV and we want to do something else ... we all have our own “corner” to do that but yet we are together.

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The dining table, where my family often finds me working, is from our old house. On the wall is one of my paintings. I made the lights myself from papier-mâché.

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I went to art school.

Years ago, my mother suggested I take an art course working with felt.

I thought it was so inspiring that I wanted to continue working with it.

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like to create and to experiment with materials; I research different techniques and structures. In this new house, there’s room for a studio. It’s nice to have a room where I can do this. My works of art can be found throughout the house. On the walls near the tables are my paintings.

Felt rugs lie on the chairs. Above the dining table are lamps made of papier-mâché. The artworks give our house a unique character.

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he interior design came about naturally over the years. Re-use of materials has been an important principle. When we moved here, we brought some furniture from our old (smaller) house with us. Some of that furniture is still here, such as the dining table. We like to recycle things, and we use objects we find in the area alongside local materials. We’ve turned the old wooden boards of a barge into a desk and created occasional tables from a beam we salvaged from the harbor. On a walk, we once found some birch branches. We’ve attached them to the wooden beams in the ceiling. Sometimes I decorate them, but they look just as beautiful on their own.

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More on Wynske

www.wynske.nl Pinterest: nl.pinterest.com/wynske/ Instagram: Wynske

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The desk was made of old wooden boards from a barge in the harbor.

Through the LENS

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The foundation for SONJA’s passion and expertise in photography was laid at the Fotovakschool in Amsterdam. Her use of light, style, and detailed view gives her, as a photographer, the opportunity to contribute to success stories with her images. Commercial but also personal successes. As a commercial photographer, she makes it her aim to perfectly convey the unique characteristics of a product, space, or company.

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More on Sonja

www.SonjaVelda.nl Instagram: SonjaVeldaFotografie Facebook: SonjaVeldaFotografie Pinterest: nl.pinterest.com/SonjaVelda/boards/

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It is an art that Sonja has mastered over the years. Through a detailed view and the use of natural light, she captures objects, spaces, and faces in a way that speaks. A way that radiates tranquility and allows attention to be fully focused on the subject. Her portfolio is characterized by light, modern, and exclusivity. This is achieved through her unique method in which natural light is central.

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Donna Watson

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Donna Watson considers herself a cliff dweller on an island in the Pacific Northwest. For 40 years, she has been an artist, juror, mentor, and workshop instructor all over the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

Donna has been on a long journey of self-discovery as she completes art works in painting, collage, assemblage, book making, and fiber arts. She is a full-time collector, always happy to add a “find” to her many collections in her studio. A secondhand store or a beach covered with rocks are equals. Her inspiration is combining her Japanese heritage with her deep love for nature.

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I don’t believe, as an artist, I can separate myself from my art.

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The way I walk, talk, what colors and clothes I choose to wear, who I choose as friends, my collections, my home décor … all my choices give me away.

Everything is my self-portrait, everything is my diary. My studio is definitely a self-portrait of who I am. Once these choices were unconscious, buried deep inside myself. I believe that an artist should always be on a search to find out their own voice and bring all their choices to a more conscious level. This artistic journey has no ending in sight and is ongoing. The artist will begin where they are at that moment and continue on this journey to discover for the first time who they were all along. It is like going on a trip, and when I return home, I see the same things with new “eyes.”

I did not always know who I was or what my unique voice was.

Early on in my art journey, I painted pretty landscapes in watercolor. They became very popular and sold very well. I let the money take over, and for a number of years, I completed lots of pretty paintings for the sales. I never gave any thought to the colors I chose or why I chose white houses to paint, just the money. Eventually, I realized I had sold my soul to the devil and had not grown as an artist. I was not expressing any personal meaning in these paintings. I quit painting for a year, falling into a deep dark hole … with no glimmer of light or a way out.

I like to call my art journey STUMBLING TOWARDS THE LIGHT because I did not take the easy detour in the road. I chose the hard bumps, pot holes, and driving in the dark. I finally emerged from this dark place and started a new journey of discovery. I realized I could only create out of my own dark place, not someone else’s dark place. I started to search for myself, who I was, what I liked, what I did not like … my strengths. I made lists and brainstormed words about myself.

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My family heritage is Japanese,

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and I started to explore and read about Japanese culture and art. I found out about my own family history … my ancestors and their lives. I have been to Japan three times now, and with each trip, I discovered more about myself. I learned that I was more Japanese than I previously knew. I discovered that even those early watercolor paintings had some Japanese design elements … that I did not like much color, and I loved black and white contrast and textures, balance, harmony, and simplicity. I slowly discovered who I was all along, but at a more conscious level. I found a new, solid ground to work from … a different way to work that had more meaning for me, a unique voice that became more clear and conscious. I became who I always was.

My painting medium changed to acrylic paintings, and I began working on series that had personal meaning to me. I started to add collage, and eventually, I became a collage artist, separate from my paintings. My studio and home became more Japanese, with subdued colors and textures. Every time I came home from Japan, I brought more Japanese decor into my home. I discovered Japanese temple flea markets in Kyoto and brought home old books, envelopes, scrolls, letters, postcards, which I added to my stash of collage papers. I experimented with and discovered a unique way to hand paint Japanese washi papers, which have become a staple in my collages.

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Another major detour on my artistic journey happened about 20 years ago.

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We moved to our current home on a cliff on an island in the Pacific Northwest. I filled my home with Japanese furnishings and decor. Outside, we started adding Japanese gardens with water features and miniature stone temples, including a koi pond, moss garden, and a green house.

There are woods around my home with trails down to the beach below my home. Every time we go for a walk through the woods down to the beach, I pick up a stick or some moss or lichen. I look down on the trails at all the textures. I look up at the sunlight flickering through the leaves. The Japanese call this “forest bathing,” or being nourished by nature. On the beach, I look for interesting driftwood or a smooth round rock. I began to fill up my studio with all these nature finds. I became a hunter, gatherer, and collector of nature’s offerings. All these collections now mingle and share space in my studio with my Japanese collections of temple bells, dolls, and wooden boxes. My studio became my nature sanctuary filled with rocks, shells, animal bones, fossils, leaves, and seed pods. I have been a collector all my life. When I open a box filled with fragments of stone, stick, shell, moss … traces … findings … I feel a connection to the place I found it. Feelings of gentleness, peace, oneness, belonging, and connection wash over me.

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My studio is my refuge and my safe place.

I believe artists need a place to go where they feel comfort and safety. Artists should furnish this space with things they love, collect, and cherish. Artists should want to go to this place and stay there … whether they get any work done or not. My studio is filled with all my collections, and when I walk in, I feel at home. My soul comes to peace, and I am able to shut out all the negative news in the world. The Japanese call this the Beauty of Nothingness. Nothingness does not mean empty or void. Nothingness means there is room for new potential for creativity. When I look around my studio, I see inspiration everywhere. I feel like the small tokens and fragments of nature connect me to the outside. I think about the passage of time, the fragile transience of nature, the things that go unnoticed and the ever-changing cycle of life and decay. This acceptance of things being incomplete, impermanent, and imperfect is a Japanese tenet called Wabi Sabi, which I’m attracted to.

These are themes that show up in all my art works.

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“In the end, she became mor e than she expected.

She became the journey, and like all journeys, she did not end, she just simply changed dir ections and kept going.”

—R.M. DRAKE (ROBERT M. DRAKE)

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My artistic journey began to expand from painting

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(I recently changed my medium to cold wax and oil paints) and collage to assemblage. With my assemblage, I began to combine my Japanese influences with nature … wrapping a twig or a rock … and using Japanese papers to showcase things from nature. I am drawn to scrolls and wrapped bundles of paper. I collect strings and chords from Japan and have added these scrolls and paper bundles to paintings, collages, and assemblage. I see some mystery in these scrolls and bundles, a secret message between myself and the viewer. I am fascinated with memories we all have from our childhood, from our own experiences, from our travels, and the people we meet. I believe there is a human connection because we all have memories—not the same ones but similar in ways that make us all human.

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More recently, during the pandemic, when

I stayed home and in my studio, I began to make books. Each book would have a Japanese title and a translation, and then I would look for subject matter to express the Japanese word. One book, Yugen, translates to “wonders of nature,” and I used trees as the subject matter. Another book title is Shizuka, which means “peace and silence,” and I used images of the stones I collected from the beach below my home as the subject matter. I titled a book Kintsugi, which means “renewal,” and used my collection of seed pods to represent this rebirth in nature. These books are one way in which I meld my Japanese heritage and aesthetic with my love and connection to nature.

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I also like to make small folded boxes and accordion books. The purpose of making these boxes and books is to showcase my nature collections. I like to fold papers— origami-style—into boxes and books and then wrap them with my collection of Japanese strings. This folding and wrapping part of my work fits into my Japanese aesthetic, along with my love of textures, contrast or subdued colors, and mark making.

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Art is about a heightened state of awareness.

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Be alert to the senses. I try to treat everyday life as I would a work of art. I try to create something artful out of something mundane or ordinary; things that are weathered, worn, rusty, old, torn—decayed leaves on the trail or broken driftwood from the beach— can become part of my art work. I see beauty in the small details.

I started my journey in the dark. As I stumbled towards the light, I became more conscious of my inner world, my deeper self, my true core. I created my studio to be my sanctuary, my place to express myself in my own voice to others I want to connect to. My home, gardens, and studio are filled with ME … what I love, what I want to surround myself with and immerse myself in. My studio shouts in a very loud voice who I am to the world.

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More on Donna

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PET TALES 140

Chloe and

Valerie Radford Cox

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Hi,

I’m Chloe. I am the official Vervet Noir Design Studio assistant. This is my second Vervet Noir position.

My last position was in Abu Dhabi, and I would sit on the balcony outside Mom’s studio and greet people as they passed by. In the evenings, when we strolled in the cool air, lots of people would call out, “Hi Chloe!” and I would let everyone pet me and take my photo for their Instagram accounts. I felt like a dog ambassador because some people don’t know that dogs are basically good, and they fear them. Can you imagine? I’m proud of the work I did there, and you know, I will admit, the attention was gratifying.

Then, last year, we moved to beautiful Oregon.

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Hardly anyone visits us now, except a lady called FedEx and a guy called UPS. They bring presents for Mom and make her happy. They also give me treats, but they hardly ever stay and chat. Mom says this change in circumstances is due to something called a pandemic, and our friends will come see us soon. I hope so.

As much as I love Mom, it’s a little lonely up here on the hilltop.

Now we have a new studio, and my responsibilities are wide-ranging, for sure. I mean, I’m the one who gets everyone going around here. At the crack of dawn, I give Mom a little nuzzle in the ear (no loud barks before she’s awake!).

After tea/cuddle/talk time, we’re up. No time for lazin’ about, we have things to do!

Mom heads up to the studio to do her quiet writing. Dad and I do some garden work, which includes reminding the wild creatures of the boundaries. The cheeky chipmunk is especially clueless about personal space … geez, he comes right up to the porch! Then just last week, I forced 23 wild turkeys to fly into a tree.

Turkey poop all over our new lawn? No, thank you! This part of the job takes a lot of courage, but there’s more to this girl than floppy ears.

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Once that responsibility is checked off the list, I head up to the studio. My collar tag makes a satisfying “cachunk” sound as I hit each step, so Mom is waiting for me. We have a short happy reunion, with hugs and wags. Then we begin our workday by selecting colors for an embroidery. If I could be given this task to do by myself, it would go a lot quicker because it takes Mom a really, really long time to choose the spools. Sometimes it takes so long, I stick my head in the thread bin to see if there’s something hiding in there. If I do this, she’s a little rude and says, “Hey, outta there, that’s not yours!” I put up with her outbursts because I know it’s just artistic temperament.

When we (finally) have the embroidery machine going, I’m always hopeful that there will be time for a quick nap. But nooooo, she’s on the move again.

Since it’s my job to make sure she is always safe, I spend the next couple of hours tailing her: cutting table, desk, closet, sewing machine, embroidery machine. Sometimes she is so engrossed in what’s she’s doing that she trips right over me! I know she doesn’t mean to hurt me, and she always picks me up and gives me a cuddle and says, “Sorry, sorry.”

Then I give a little wag (NOT a big wag because it did hurt my dignity). The little wag is our signal that everything is OK between us.

Mom always says, “Good job, us; thank you for your help, Chloe.”

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Another big responsibility is reminding her to take breaks. This one is a challenge because once she’s started on a project, she forgets about everything else. I do the reminding in steps: first, I nuzzle her leg. If no response, I nuzzle again.

Next, paw on leg. At this stage, I’m likely to get only a pat and must resort to a bark. It’s a balancing act between responsibility and touching that temperament nerve.

After lunch (a late lunch, with my tummy grumbling like mad), I finally get to take a little nap. The rest of the day, I just saunter around the studio, evaluating fabric for softness, etc.

Sometimes I casually brush against a roll of fabric just to see if it will fall over. The “boom” of the falling roll makes Mom jump. As astute as she is, she is still not sure if this is intentional on my part. She just absently gives me a cuddle and puts me in the napping chair.

Many hours later, we examine what we’ve accomplished during the day. Now comes my favorite part of the day, a slow walk around the garden, which ends with some quiet time on the green bench. We watch the sunset and the birds, and she rubs my back. I feel her take a deep breath. Being a studio assistant is hard work, but that deep, happy sigh is all I need to feel content.

Good job, me!

SARAH GOLDEN PHOTOGRAPHY BY AMANDA BELLAMY

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“I paint from remembered landscapes that I carry with me— and remembered feelings of them, which, of course, become transformed. I could certainly never mirror nature. I would like more to paint what it leaves with me.” — JOAN M I TC HE LL

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SARAH GOLDEN is a painter and surface pattern designer living in Sacramento, California, with her husband, Jacob, a musician/composer, and their 8-year-old twin daughters. Working with repetition of lines, dots, botanicals, and blocks of color, she creates collages, patterns, and abstracted landscapes in her recently built dream studio.

I’m

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a mid to late bloomer in finding my footing as an artist and deciding to be a professional artist. I started my daily art practice in 2015. I was 38, my twins were 18 months old, and I was exhausted and afraid I was going to lose myself inside motherhood if I didn’t acknowledge this creativity in me and keep it alive. It was just 20 minutes a day that I committed to, even looking at art and honing what I was attracted to and why or why not. These conversations I’d have in my head while going about everyday things really kept me excited about art and from going mad; they still do. I knew I wanted a creative career as an artist, but I didn’t have a daily practice up until that point, and so committing those 20 minutes was the first step, and everything grew from there.

At the time, I was block printing fabric and sewing it into clothes, designing my own fabric to use in my home projects and sharing it on social media. I shared consistently, and I had the goal of designing fabric.

Later that year, Andover Fabrics got in touch with me and offered me my first fabric collection; those block prints I had been working on during naps and breaks are what became my first fabric collection.

The following year, in 2016, I started painting on canvas and fell in love. It quite literally feels like the early stages of falling in love when you find something that just fits so right, and you think about it all the time.

I was obsessed, fully committed myself to painting, and when I told my husband that I was going to be a painter and sell my work, he wasn’t so sure and told me I wasn’t ready. I was so upset during that conversation, but I left thinking, “Ha! I’ll show him.” We are both creatives and have very honest conversations around our work and creative goals. So he’s not a jerk, and he wasn’t completely wrong, to be honest, but I’m so glad I didn’t follow his advice. I had my first solo show the following year and sold a lot of work. That was so validating and really showed me that I can do this, that this is the creative career path for me.

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When

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I imagined how I wanted to spend my days as an artist, it was here, at home. My children are young. I want them to experience my artist life as they grow up. But I wanted space to grow my art practice, hire a studio assistant at some point, and paint big! We had already converted our attached one-car garage into a space that was my studio for about 5 years. I rented a studio outside of the house in downtown Sacramento, Arthouse on R, for about 8 months.

That was fantastic for the community vibe and showing my work. But working from home fits my lifestyle more; I’m a total homebody. I also need to take breaks and rest throughout my day to balance my energy.

One day I was standing in the backyard, and I just said, “What if instead of me paying rent on a studio outside the house, we build one here in the backyard? Rent prices are going up fast.” I wanted a space I won’t grow out of, something I’ll enjoy spending the majority of my time in. Let’s build a beautiful space that is an investment in my career and benefits our family in so many ways.

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down to fit the budget. The ground floor is 635 square feet, and the loft/office is 200 square feet, so 835 square feet total. The most important thing besides having the square footage was natural light; skylights were a non-negotiable, and I have 5 skylights total, 3 skylights over the main floor that provide a nice diffused light and 2 venting skylights in the loft. Other must-haves were a bathroom, lots of windows, and a high ceiling (ours ended up being over 15'!).

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When I get an idea in my head, I can’t put it down. I met with an architect the following week, Gen Muñoz of Studio Oxeye, who is local to me and was recommended by my friend and photographer Amanda Bellamy, who took these photos. I came up with what kind of square footage was my bare minimum; 600 square feet was the smallest I wanted to go. Gen asked that we dream big to start the design and then whittle

Building

my own studio is a huge privilege, and it’s also hugely stressful. Making all the decisions that will impact how I’m able to work in the space for years to come is a lot of pressure. But by making it open-ended, the space can evolve along with me and my work. Rolling out a large piece of gessoed canvas on the wall and just putting the paint down never gets old. Also, having 10 canvases I’m working on at the same time is how I like to work. If a few paintings are too wet, I can move on, and when I come back, the others are ready for more paint.

Biscuit, my 2-year-old Boston Terrier, is my studio dog. He hangs out with me most days, sleeps on a sheepskin rug while I work, and snores very loud. If I’m sitting at my large drafting table, he insists on sitting next to me on a stool.

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My goal as a working artist is to dig deeper in my work, taking longer chunks of time to dive deep into exploration and finding that thing that sparks a whole new series. I do my best work when I get obsessed with an idea and dive deep into the exploration of, say, mark making or the different hues of blue, how I get a wonderful visceral response to certain polka dots, the texture of fabric, the weave and how it makes me feel. I am experimenting more, not worrying about a series of work all the time or sharing it but really having more privacy in my practice.

I’ve experienced such burnout over the last couple years, my studio time needs to be a comfort more than ever. So I’ve brought more play into daily practice.

Paper, pencils, charcoal, sketchbooks, collage—no real idea in mind, just experimenting. All these things can really spark some great compositions or ways of working. Not being careful at all, really letting loose on a piece of paper or canvas, that feels so, so good.

As for the bigger picture of my studio and the work I put out, building the licensing part of my work is a goal for the next couple years. I love licensing my work to companies for their products, and I’m dedicating more time to that. I want to continue painting and showing my work.

Having a studio that I can hang work in similar to a gallery setting is powerful; I’m grateful for that.

I love creating items that people want to live with, whether it’s a painting hanging on their wall or the fabric they choose to make a quilt with. If my art helps others express themselves and their style, then I’ve done my job well.

Through the LENS

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CHEYENNE RANDALL AND ARIEL QUIROLO OF INDIANGIVER | INSTAGRAM: @INDIANGIVER

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HEADSHOT PHOTOGRAPHED BY JAC POTORKE

AMANDA BELLAMY is a film and digital photographer with a focus on documentary and lifestyle photography based in Sacramento, California. Amanda started shooting film in 2002 and followed her passion for photography into college. It was there that she learned how to develop and print her own work, both in color and black and white. As the technology began to shift, she honed in on perfecting her digital work, but there continued to be a strong pull to shoot film as her preferred method of bringing her art to life.

After experiencing a traumatic event that left her creatively barren in her mid-20s, Amanda put her camera down for a few years and focused on motherhood and her growing family. It wasn’t until one night in January of 2018 at 3 a.m. that her creative fire was reignited after watching a documentary about the late photographer Vivian Maier. Amanda was inspired to purchase her first medium format TLR camera, similar to the one Vivian Maier used to quietly capture the world around her. Amanda quickly realized after shooting her first roll of film through the Minolta Autocord that it was broken. The camera would create multiple exposures at random without the ability to control the outcome. Instead of letting this mishap defeat her, she decided to use this defect to her advantage, learning how to create something beautiful out of brokenness and tweak the perspective of her images.

Whether it be documenting motherhood, ordinary daily life, or her fellow artists, Amanda continues to specialize in allowing the unexpected to inspire her. “Nothing is perfect,” she says. “The beauty is in the process.”

FROM MY

kitchen table

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