I’m grateful for... ( 🎨 the power of collage )
Some thoughts & recommendations to start your weekend
I’m grateful for the power of collage, which allows disparate ideas to exist alongside each other. I’m grateful for how it captures the early, brainstorming stage of the creative process, as you gather ideas before anything meaningful coheres into being. I’m grateful for how it allows separate concepts to exist independently of each other without anything having to be explained.
I’m grateful for how, in the worst of my trauma, I could make elaborate collages which conveyed how I felt more accurately than language ever could. I’m grateful to have returned to the practice this week, choosing it as my Artist Date. I’m grateful to have made the little collage that accompanies this piece, using screenshots from my desktop and snapshots from throughout the week.
I’m grateful for how it illustrates the things that have been occupying my mind this week: a $230 dry clean only bathrobe (that nobody needs but isn’t it pretty?), a podcast mic, a blurry walk in the park, a cat perched on my laptop preventing any kind of work.
I’m grateful for how the 1990s iteration of “Girl Power” feminism exists alongside a memorable poster from the 1995 divorce referendum. I’m grateful that the referendum passed, though it was agonisingly close: 50.28% in favour of allowing divorce with 49.72% against. I was reminded this week of the then Taoiseach1 John Bruton’s intervention on the Sunday before voting. He was a conservative on so-called “moral issues” but still asked people to consider the question carefully. He died this week. I think often of that referendum which liberated a lot of people, including myself though I was just 8 years old at the time. I’ve been thinking about divorce a lot this week, likely because I’ve been reading about this forthcoming book.
I’m grateful for the collage I’m about to make, which will hopefully capture visually what Beyond Survival means. I imagine: lush greenery, sunlight as disinfectant and clarifying light. I think of it as something modern and clean but not overly stylised. Something organic, hand written or drawn. Something that grows when tended to.
Recommendations
📺 I stayed out too late on Saturday night and spent Sunday in a fog. The two hours I spent in the world created by She Came To Me were the highlight of my day. It’s a romantic comedy written and directed by Rebecca Miller, starring Peter Dinklage, Marisa Tomei and Anne Hathaway. I didn’t know much more than that before watching, and I think that’s the best way to experience it.
📚I started The Bee Sting by Paul Murray this week, after being persuaded by both the Booker Committee and the many smart readers I know who adored it. I still have a long way to go but so far, I love it.
🎧 I’m excited to see American Fiction soon, having followed Cord Jefferson’s work since his Gawker days. I enjoyed this thoughtful conversation with Sam Sanders about the film and their experiences of being black and working in the media.
🍗 Made this for dinner last night. My partner requested less harissa paste as it can be a bit liquorice-y, but we both gobbled it up.
👰 As mentioned above, I’ve been thinking a lot about divorce this week and loved this conversation between
Lenz and Sara Fredman from on the trap of heterosexual marriage. This was one of those pieces I read while scribbling thoughts and rebuttals in my notebook. It’ll make you think!💕 If this piece resonated with you, please tap the heart below to help spread the word.
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✍️ Beyond Survival is written by me, Clare Egan, an award-winning writer and journalist. You can read more about me here, or look at some pretty pictures over here. 👋 Click reply to say hello anytime. Thank you for being here!
Taoiseach = Irish Prime Minister