now & then (& back again!!)

hello.

i’m Angelica and this is “BLOOM!”

BLOOM? are you a gardener?

no, i’m an artist, but I do love flowers.

“BLOOM!” started as a way to find an audience for my work outside of usual social media. i was frustrated with the landscape of things. my work wanted to be seen by more eyes than my own. and I wanted legitimacy, a following, but I wasn’t quite sure what I was going to be sharing just yet. you see, I do a variety of things, and the flower metaphor was just perfect. who doesn’t love the image of a flower unfolding? who can deny the magic/ mysticism/ beauty/ insert word here of flowers? the multiplicity of petals? ahhhhh!

for my website click here / for my YouTube click here (music only) / for my instagram click here (music only).

i’m so glad to see you. welcome, or welcome back :)

Yes, this newsletter is late but isn’t it also just perfectly on time?

What have I been up to? well, a little of something, a little of nothing.

Time is an interesting, beautiful beast.

Slippery, cyclical, elusive, out-of-reach. Sometimes, crip-time rules the skies. Other times, the spiral sends me up and down, up and down, a journey I somewhat begrudgingly consent to because I need to get better.

When it comes to being an artist, I feel like I’ve got a visual image of a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly calendar in my head at all times, coalescing with my body’s timings, my cyclical needs, my need for rest, my need for quiet.

I often feel frustrated as an artist, that I’m running out of time, that I should be there by now. Or, I am serene, composed and trusting - “all in its own time”. I arrive when I arrive.

We slip between modes, don’t we? A little dance, a little sway.

As someone who sets her own deadlines, it can sometimes feel like i’m grappling with a too-soft structure - who put this there? it is unnecessary. But self-imposed deadlines make the work work.

I have several deadlines this year and so far so good, but one’s state of health can soften these walls into goo. And so it goes.

~

BANSHEE is beginning. Audio recording this month. Then the video, then some visual art (fingers crossed - my mini printing press just arrived!) … and my poetry workshops in Queen’s Wood look to be happening in August and September(???), the flyers will be printed soon.

I’ve got two more songs to make videos of and then I want to do a live performance with all four of them. probably in the woods - pourquoi pas? (i’ve played these songs live before at open mics and other events/ shenanigans but not as a real performance - intentional, artistic, whole.)

~

Currently I’m obsessed with outdoor (performance) spaces and am doing research online (for now)…

(e.g.)

• gwennap pit &/ carn marth amphitheatre

• minack theatre

• austria places (on the water) - e.g. Seebühne / Bregenzer Festspiele

• Omved gardens (?)

iirc this used to be a preacher’s pit and it was shaped by miners carving out the seats. originally the depressed shape was formed by the ground giving way into an abandoned mine below.

When I’ve put things on in the woods (qww in 2024) and now when i’m planning two experimental poetry workshops in the woods this summer (more info in next newsletter), I consider what might happen if it rains. It’s just something you need to consider when you’re doing particular activities outside, I guess, especially if you’re using paper, pens etc.1

We don’t have the luxury of a strict rainy season in London, where rain can be predicted or avoided. It just comes and goes, hard or soft, every season, sometimes more frequent, sometimes less.2 As I write this I’m reminded of an event I put on many years ago now (as I say, time’s a funny beast) in an entirely different climate, where planning around impending downpours or (piddling) drip drops of rain was unnecessary (there’s a more defined rainy season, easier to manoeuvre, and in certain months it’s guaranteed to be dry). It wasn’t my first time directing a creative event/ project, because I ran an underground music night at university; but, it felt pretty formative.

We’re going back 7 years or so, so hang on tight, we’ll be back in the present shortly… it’s 2019 and I’m coming to the end of my year in CDMX. I lived and worked in the same space, helping it to become a functional creative space for events/ an artist residency space over the year (while also working as a translator and waitress!). Before I left for Xilitla and Las Pozas, then back to London, I curated a show on the rooftops of the casa (I called it FINALMENTE ! and promoted it with the song Finally by CeCe Peniston). I’d already been to quite a few rooftop parties and shows, and it felt pretty fitting to end my stay with something I organised myself that brought people from different places together.3

(a sunburnt and frazzled younger me is featured in the last pic, standing in front of my mural) ~

As well as there being hanging art on the walls, I organised for a friend to outline a mural design that everybody attending could easily participate in, blurring the line between artist and audience :)

There’s probably a whole chunk of stuff I could recall about my year in México and how formative it was for me as an artist… but we’ll return to the present now. I suppose I remembered this because it was quite a notable experience but also because I find it interesting how the climate shaped the spaces that were most desirable or accessible. Unless it was the rainy season, rooftop parties were the norm, especially for artists, musicians and writers (at least, in the more DIY circles I moved in. I think I went to one courtyard party as well haha)

Researching outdoor theatres in Cornwall, or stages on an Austrian lake, or recalling rooftop events in CDMX feels exciting to me because of how the natural world is so deeply interwoven with my art & song. And if nature and art are so entwined in the “product” and gestation, why not the staging or presentation?

I also think it’s important for events to be accessible to the covid-cautious, and I feel like there’s a lot of possibility in the outdoors to connect with the natural world in new and exciting ways (through stagecraft, curation, costume etc.)

[recent procreate sketch/ mock-up of a dream I had with all my 7pp paintings in the woods setting the scene for a potential performance or show]

Honestly, I miss the DIY aspect of some of my previous work. I love just being able to set something up, invite some people, and not need to plan things extensively or worry too much…

Have you ever just put on a show or event in a short amount of time just cos you felt like it?

Are there any events you’ve been to recently that filled you with awe?

How are you connecting art/ nature/ the elements in your own practice(s)? Are you inspired to??

I’m currently low on spoons so pls forgive any formatting/ editing errors (!). I’ve also just had my hopes of a new treatment for my health dashed as it turned out it was not the effective, rigorous program I thought it was. But we move…

BTW - I’ve just made my Bookshop.org wishlist public if anyone feels like supporting me/ my newsletter/ my writing by sending a treat my way! Books are such nice things to receive in the post.

Let me know how you’re doing in the comments if ya wanna. Personally it’s been a challenging two months, but things look a bit easier now :)

Until next time

With love!

Angelica

xXxXxXxXx

p.s. there are nearly 300 of you now subscribed to me, to my little corner of the internet! wow! i’m genuinely touched that so many of you are interested in what i’m slowly building. thank you.

3

It wasn’t the last rooftop event I went to, even! There was an amazing impromptu concert right before I left that made me wanna stay longer (these are the only photos I have, they’re a bit shit, but the vibes were awesome) ~