Claudia's Late Summer News
Hi, hi, hi,
As I write this, I’m eating our first cherry tomato straight from the vine in the garden, which is one of summer’s true delights. It feels like all of our veggies are a bit late this year, but that probably isn’t surprising considering we had some really mean hail storms. At one point, all of the leaves on my courgette/zucchini were gone, but looking at the veg patch now you’d have no idea! Nature is resilient, which is something that provides me with hope when there’s a more constant presence of wild weather events these days.
Two embarrassing things happened to me since I last wrote a newsletter. I’m a deep believer that sharing humiliating things makes them less personally shameful, and creates joy for others, so here goes nothing!
No. 1: Together with my partner, Matt, we did a 30-mile cycle to a brewery south of Denver. We met a friend for beers (hey Donnie!), and I scooched my bum along the wooden picnic bench to create more space. Upon doing so, I ended up with maybe 30 splinters planted in my cheeks. It was all fun and games whilst Matt plucked out as many as he could for me there and then, but that night I was woken up by the brutal sting of those remaining. There was a huge splinter retrieval session the following morning; be bench safe out there people!
No. 2: On a hike to Crater Lakes in the James Peak Wilderness, Matt and I came across a snow bank that we either needed to pass through, or we could scramble to the side of it. We followed the advice of a man we'd met earlier on the trail to take the snowbank route, but quickly found that the rising sun was melting it and making it more slick. It was slow going, but we were making progress when a family above us shouted down alarmingly - a rock was rolling directly toward us! Their dog had dislodged it from the trail and despite it being a huge snowbank, we watched in slow motion as the rock rolled directly into my feet, knocking me over so that I slid on my tummy back into Matt. Thankfully he didn’t fall over and after a struggle to get back up, we eventually made it to Upper Lake. When we got there we met the family and it turned out they’d caught us in a photo pre-fall - no doubt because they couldn’t believe we’d chosen to climb the snowbank in the first place!
I did a little tidy up on my website recently, it’s a constant work-in-progress! If you’d like to see more of my pulp paintings they’re now there, photographed with graceful hand modelling by Matt. I’ve also shared more of my mono screen prints on paper on the site.
I’ve also FINALLY been working on new pulp paintings! It took a while to find a studio and for the logistics to line up, but now I’m in the swing of it and making paper at InterOcean Studio. Some of these will be in my solo show at Bell Projects in November, which is fast approaching!
And now, some things I’ve enjoyed recently…
Watch:
What We Do in the Shadows is a “delightfully absurd” series that follows the lives of four vampires living in Staten Island, NY. Based on the 2014 movie of the same name (also fun), it’s very silly and gets better with each season. We named our cat after one of the characters, Laszlo, played by the incomparable Matt Berry, and whenever we see a bat on these summer evenings we have to shout “Bat!”
Cook:
Peanut Chicken Noodle Bowl - Growing up, my Mum always made a delicious satay-inspired sauce for chicken skewers at Summer BBQs. This reminds me of that but makes a whole meal of it! Ideal for summer days, it adds substance to a crunchy salad. It’d be great with crispy tofu and you can switch out whatever veggies you have at home.
And to go all out, we’ve also been enjoying Spicy Watermelon Margaritas, for two drinks: 6oz fresh watermelon juice, 2oz tequila, 2oz Cointreau, 2oz fresh lime juice, 2 thinly sliced jalapeño rounds. To make the watermelon juice, I scoop the flesh out, and blend it. Then I shake everything all together with ice and serve!
Learn:
Jackson’s Art Supplies have been sharing fascinating 1-minute ‘pigment stories’ on their Instagram recently. I love colour, it’s really important in my work, but I know so little about how pigments are made or the histories behind them. Caput Mortuum is one of the pigments they cover, originally it was created from ground mummified remains taken from Ancient Egypt (ugh, both culturally and practically disgusting). Find out more here.
Listen:
We recently saw indie-folk band Big Thief at Red Rocks Amphitheatre with friends here in Colorado. They were GREAT! And then we heard that they’re currently BBC 6 Music’s Artist in Residence, where members of the band have curated hour-long playlists on different themes. I particularly enjoyed the “Peers who inspire us” where Buck Meek basically plays all his friends music.
Look:
I love an evening neighbourhood walk, especially this time of year, here’s some Black-eyed Susans and hot pink Yarrows, that look so joyful together!
And that’s it, thank you for reading! As always, your feedback, questions and messages are welcome : )
It’s always a pleasure reading your newsletters. I can gear your lovely voice narrating. Congrats on making it to top of the hike. It looks very cool!