#7: on decorating our spaces

mumbai taxi

It took me over a year to get back to this newsletter. Throughout 2024, I tried to write many times but struggled to gather my thoughts. We moved to a new city, settled in quickly and immersed ourselves in the abundance of community and events here.

In November, we visited India. It was my first time back in five years, and by far my most endearing visit. I saw so much art, not just at galleries but also unintentionally. India is maximalist by nature; people decorate each thing they own, from the petrol cap of a lorry we spotted in Bombay to the blank walls of small Himalayan towns.

One of my highlights was picking up screenprinted, textural books from the Art Book Center - a tiny, vibrant space in Ahmedabad filled with art books and adorned in decorations. So much so that the owner clarified to us that the decorations aren’t for sale, in fact they’re there to give us an idea on how to decorate our own spaces. There’s so much I want to share from this place that I’ll dedicate a separate post to it soon.

art book center, ahmedabad

Being there made me more aware of the blankness, almost harshness we grow accustomed to in the UK. India is overwhelming, overstimulating. As a child, I remember feeling restless and even tearful during visits. But this time I saw it differently and noticed that art can be made anywhere and at any time, especially when we focus on the act of creating itself rather than producing a perfect finished piece.

I’ve been battling a tendency of creating only when the conditions feel ‘right’. I give myself a blank page and force my mind to squeeze out an illustration with just a few overly perfect images from Pinterest for reference. The pressure builds and I end up with nothing. The same applies to this newsletter, I’ve abandoned countless drafts, fearing that I was rambling. But I’m trying to remind myself that something imperfect is better than nothing, something incomplete is better than nothing. An art style is an amalgamation of colours and subjects you are naturally drawn to and taking something from small moments of inspiration.

warli art, ahmedabad

This trip made me wonder how much our environments can contribute to creative freedom. When you live amid constant visual energy, do you develop an indifference to it, or does creativity become second nature to you? I’m attempting to create this environment for myself — pinning up postcards in quiet corners, polaroids on blank walls, incorporating colour and texture in my daily life. I don’t want days to pass by without my surroundings giving me small snippets of joy.

We also took so many photos during this trip that it was difficult to narrow down what to include in this newsletter. Let me know what you think of seeing these moments of creativity in unexpected spaces! I know I’ll be sharing them time and time again for a long while.