Edition #1
Hello and welcome
Welcome to the inaugural edition of my newsletter! A monthly email direct from my inbox to yours, packed with thoughtfully curated content designed to inspire and open your mind.
Since the dawn of dial-up, we have occupied various corners of the cyber world. What and how we engage with the digital world has significantly shifted since then. Pre-Covid, we spent more time than ever online with the invention of smart technology and broadband networks. Since the start of the pandemic, the time we spend in these spaces is no longer temporary or transient. We live here now. Ceramic classes are online, so are book clubs, networking events, and pub quizzes. Teaching has seamlessly transitioned, and thousands of us are now working from home.
The idea for this newsletter was born out of this experience. We have no clear end in sight to how and when we transition from social distancing and semi lock-down. Therefore it is important to reflect on how we make technology work for us to improve our quality of life. Reflecting on my own digital habits in previous months, I noticed myself mindlessly scrolling and searching for something to connect with. And then Zoom fatigue kicked in.
I discovered I could pull myself away from screen time once I had satiated my need for quality content. If it engaged and inspired me, it left an imprint on my thoughts in the hours that followed. Kind of like the feeling you get after watching a terrific film or finish a book you just couldn't put down. My awareness of how I connect online has shifted, and how I live on and offline has shifted, too.
By offering a monthly selection of thoughtful content, my hope is that you find empowerment in your life, both on and offline to follow your curiosity and chase ideas that excite and interest you in your everyday. Each edition will feature free-thinkers, creatives, and makers who continue to produce work during uncertain times. Their work helps us to make sense of the chaos and to discover our own interpretation of the new world we are journeying towards together.
To kick us off, this months newsletter includes a review of Kate Murphy’s You’re Not Listening, What You’re Missing and Why It Matters. In a world of mixed messages and miscommunication, no book will make you feel more understood. I spoke with ceramicist and painter, Sarah Jeffrey about her experience in lock-down, her creative process and what drives the inspiration behind her playful works. John McWhorter wrote an important piece for The Atlantic on revising the definition of racism in dictionaries, and photographer Chris Le Messurier has launched his own collection of photographs in Earthly Monuments.
Until next month,
Claire x
Illustration by Lehel Kovács
Haar East artist Sarah Jeffrey talks about inspiration in lock-down, playful creativity, and the future of the arts industry
As lock-down restrictions begin to lift, many professionals are beginning to consider how to return to work and find a version of ‘normal’. Those lucky enough to work from home during the pandemic have reportedly enjoyed a slower pace of life with no commute to battle each day and more time to spend on hobbies and interests. This experience is no different for professional artists, who have adapted like the rest of us. Artists are able to work from their home-studios, sell their work online, and have a unique ability to find inspiration in a time of crisis.
Keen to hear more about the evolution of the creative process in lock-down, I spent a grey summers morning with Sarah Jeffrey on Zoom to talk about playful creativity, where to source inspiration in a time of lock-down, and what a post-Covid arts industry looks like.
Sarah Jeffrey is an East-London based ceramicist and painter who operates under the brand Haar East. The term haar derives from Sarah’s native Scotland and is used to describe the foggy mist that crept up from the sea to the end of her street as a child. When she first moved to London and landed in the creative world of East London, Sarah recalls it felt like a safety net to operate behind the brand. From an outsiders perspective, it seems an ingenious way to blend a previous life with a new one.
Sarah is self-taught, which allows her the freedom to playfully explore what does and what doesn’t work in her practice. The pieces Sarah creates are personified by their neutral tones and geometric forms. Aesthetically, Sarah chooses to work with a limited palette in order to give herself complete freedom in the shapes she creates.
Sarah’s ceramic works are hand built, which lends them an earthy, grainy quality. Her paintings are abstract combinations of earthy panes of cream and brown shades that conjure the grainy belly of a tree trunk. I ask her where she sources her inspiration and it makes sense when she responds that nature is a key inspiration in her work. Sarah is a “big gardener, in a small garden” and is spending more time in her garden now than ever before. Shapes and designs of nature subliminally make their way into Sarah’s ceramic forms and carvings. “It’s all experimental, it’s all about enjoying it and seeing what you can do.”
Without formal schooling, Sarah is able to follow her own curiosity and keen eye, especially when traveling abroad. When traveling with her partner, Sarah often finds herself in a “dusty, archeological museum” where she is able to draw inspiration from ancient pots, vessels, and artefacts that have a distinct earthy nature about them. Taking inspiration from these works, she mirrors similar elements in her own work when returning to the UK. “I find it incredible and completely mind-blowing how intricate and amazing work that was done thousands of years ago is still existing somewhere and you can go and look at it.”
At the time of interviewing lock-down had paused international travel. However Sarah was able to refer to photographs of previous trips with a fresh perspective. Sarah uses many of the same set of tools craftsman used thousands of years ago and is able to create her own modern interpretation with similar limitations.
The Haar East brand features in a number of retail outlets, from COS on the high street to independent shopfronts such as A New Tribe and Nika. When asked about how Covid-19 has impacted commissions for ceramic pieces, Sarah replies “I love working with commissions but it has been nice to have a bit more exploratory time to play with things.” Ultimately, this allows her to develop her hand-building skills and techniques as an artist.
And what does the future hold for the arts industry? It’s a million dollar question which none of us can respond to. Socially and culturally our world is in flux and on the cusp of positive, progressive change. We spend time speculating the impact of virtual art fairs and how experiential based artworks can translate to online spaces. When talking about the global art-scene, Sarah predicts “I think there probably will be shift” likely fueled by consumers who “are engaging with stuff differently.”
All images courtesy Sarah Jeffrey
John McWhorter writes 'The Dictionary Definition of 'Racism' Has to Change' for The Atlantic
Language is imbued with meaning. Therefore it makes sense that as social and cultural values evolve, so too does the language we weave meaning into. John McWhorter writes about such developments in this article for The Atlantic. A linguistics lecturer at Columbia University and author of Words on the Move, McWhorter cleverly illustrates our need for a revised definition of racism, the etymology of the term, and why we should celebrate a woke lexicon.
McWhorter wrote the article in response to 22-year-old Drake University graduate, Kennedy Mitchum's successful campaign to re-define racism directed to Merriam-Webster editors. Merriam-Webster announced they will revise the definition after Mitchum emailed the following statement:
“Racism is not only prejudice against a certain race due to the color of a person’s skin, as it states in your dictionary. It is both prejudice combined with social and institutional power. It is a system of advantage based on skin color.”
Review: You're Not Listening, What You're Missing and Why it Matters by Kate Murphy
Earlier this year, before 2020 fell to bits, New York Times contributor, Kate Murphy published, You’re Not Listening. The book is a collection of essays that sets out to transform conversations, relationships, and life. No mean feat. It is aptly dedicated to “…anyone who has misunderstood or felt misunderstood.”
Murphy takes readers on an adventure of curiosity that traces her career as a journalist, interviewing people from CIA interrogators to focus group moderators. She shapes the characters she interviews by interspersing their dialogue with her own personal impressions. In doing so, she paints rich portraits where listening is at the core of lives and careers.
Murphy peppers interviews with scientific findings that support the narrative arc she so successfully sculpts. Her ability to synthesise complex concepts from a diverse range of academic fields and succinctly explain the findings is testament to her own comprehension skills. As a reader, the effect is that you feel as though you are in an engaging conversation with a very intelligent friend.
Marrying observation with science, Murphy outlines the importance of amygdalae in listening. The amygdalae is an almond-shaped part of the brain which primes us to respond when perceiving a threat. We do this in conversation with each other. All. The. Time. To illustrate just how important the primitive part of our brain is to our listening capacity, she describes a popular process trial lawyers use. Trial lawyers train their clients to 'tone down' their amygdalae through mock cross-examinations. The whole experience sounds draining, but effective.
Later in the text Murphy takes the science of our primitive brain and applies it to our social media habits. The outrage you feel when you read a social media update or post you disagree with? Blame your amygdalae. She explains how the brain interprets posts and updates we disagree with as abandonment by the tribe. She surmises her point by claiming “…listening is actually what keeps us safe and successful as a species, if we can overcome our amygdala-activated defensiveness.”
Through her profoundly accessible writing Murphy brings our social tendencies to life with facts and sharp observation. An insightful and informative read, that I highly recommend you read.
Photographer Chris Le Messurier recently launched a hardcover zine entitled Earthly Monuments. The publication consists of 49 photographs that look at wonderings and wanderings; the permanence of humanity amidst chaos. An Australian based in London, Chris has spent extensive time traveling abroad, particularly in Montenegro and the Balkans. These experiences feed his work and the lens he views the world through.
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