Cambridge Girl Talk

Chloe Newbold 

When I initially decided to make time for a doodle each day of the week, I was anxious about remembering to fit in this daily five minutes of creative reflection. I’ve always found myself to be an all or nothing person, either to be found throwing my full self into as many activities as possible or in complete burn out mode. While I am grateful for the array of activities on offer at Cambridge, it provides the perfect environment for perpetuating this cycle of strenuous activity and exhaustion.

Two days into my doodling I received a head injury at taekwondo that left me with a mild concussion. All of a sudden the black and white of my all or nothing approach to life felt like it was left with the complete blank page of empty days stretching ahead, unable to focus long enough to attend lectures, too nauseous for exercise and frustrated at my inability to read. Ironically, the doodles that I thought I wouldn’t have time to complete became a quiet moment in my long days of silence and frustration. Days like Saturday and Sunday are most representative of my everyday experiences; part of that weird Cambridge ability to pack a million and one things into 24 hours; making campaign posters at an NUS meeting, a social housing exhibit, catching up with old friends, stressing over Karl Marx in the library and the inevitable Sunday evening rush to taekwondo.

My doodles for the rest of the week used a similar style, but felt somehow like a creation of my day as opposed to an account of my experiences. A week packed full of drawing, colouring in, walking, catching up with good friends and A LOT of baking felt like a week in which I was fashioning my own day as opposed to simply living by the structure of my degree and extra-curricular activities. These doodles weirdly represent a visual display of a week of listening, listening to podcasts, listening to the advice of friends telling me to relax, but largely of listening to myself and the messages that my body was sending me, telling me to relax.

I have never really understood when people say that you can understand a lot about a person from the style of their drawings or their handwriting. However a closer look at my own drawings made me reconsider this. These doodles are not abstract in any way, they are all a “say what you see” in terms of my daily experience, featuring the faces of friends, the covers of books or things I ate. The lack of shading or variation in colour is a far cry from the bright patterns I am usually drawn to in my clothing and furnishings. These doodles, I guess, belong to a mind that finds it difficult to deal with silence and uncertainty, knowing that the day will be full of a million tasks and things to achieve. One thing I have learnt this week while completing these doodles is the importance of trying to see the blurred lines and the grey areas, the areas of compromise and peaceful existence between the extremes of living in black and white (or maybe I have simply had too much thinking time this week).

Editorial 

Introducing the first artist in this new series of Spotlight Artist! Anja Huddart is based in London and has a very active Instagram showcasing her art: @anja_inthemaking. Having seen her varied and beautiful aesthetic, our co-director Bea got in contact with her and asked her if we could feature her on our own account and if she could answer some questions about her style and life as an artist. These are Anja’s thoughts on the questions we sent:

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1- In case our readers don’t have/follow us on Instagram, could you please give a little introduction of who you are and what you’re up to at the minute?

I’m currently a first year student on the BA Costume for Theatre and Screen course at Wimbledon College of Arts, UAL. In school, my favourite subjects were Art, Textiles, Photography and English Literature – so a lot of the references in my work come from books or great art masters. What’s fun to me now is transitioning from a flat canvas to one on the body, and layering my ideas with those of the director / designer.

2- How would you describe your art?

I think a lot of my art comes from the common yearning to do something bold and unexplored, which often amasses itself into multimedia work. I like to play with colour first and foremost, and from there figure out the high and low points of interest in the image, where to place the texture and what should fall to the back. But I always have an itching to bring something out of the frame, to make it tangible and ‘real’, so in my downtime I like to experiment with small canvasses on which I layer scrap fabric from my collection to create fabric palettes for personal inspiration, like a sketch but in material form. They help ground me before I try for something larger.

My newest pieces are all topics that have been widely explored before; politics, the female nude and the depiction of women in the art-world. While the subject is fairly simple and therefore easily understood, a lot of my thinking, as a woman looking at women, is figuring out how different my view is from the ‘Male Gaze’ that has come before. The nude has become somewhat controversial, with fewer men seen stripped down in the paintings in galleries, the equality of nakedness out of balance. Yet to me it is a new area to explore, born from intimate sittings with a model, the act of looking before pencil touches paper burning in anticipation.

3- What drives you to create? What or who inspires you?

My motivation has always been to have a go at all techniques and see how I can combine and layer them to create new meanings and ways of looking. I don’t think you can ever exhaust these topics. Nature rules all – plants, flowers, organic contrasts in colour or texture that I happen upon. I also used to do ballet, so the way the body moves by itself and within a certain space is also something I find enchanting. Off the top of my head, the artists that I love include: Guerilla Girls, Tracy Emin, Yayoi Kusama, Louise Bourgeois, Anselm Kiefer, Giacometti, Francis Bacon, David Hockney, and Sir Howard Hodgkin.

4- Do you have a few stellar Instagram accounts you would recommend?

I love to see an artist’s process, so that’s often what I seek out on Instagram.

@emily_jeffords is absolutely terrific, as are @_hiedra_ @ryhew @andrew.salgado.art @ineslongevial @emmacutrie . The list could easily keep going!

5- Do you feel your art has a trajectory and do you think it needs one?

I think my art will naturally develop as my position and ability to find time for art changes. For now, its personal, and a challenge to myself to stimulate new ideas from my experiences. Artists are born narcissists, but that’s also what people are interested in! I would love for my art to mature into something more serious, and I think keeping a future goal of some kind is important for self-belief, but what will happen next is a mystery to us all.

6- What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given to do with your art?

Not to doubt my instincts, and to remember to take a step back often so I don’t get caught in the corner ignoring the rest of the canvas.

Thank you! xxx

 

Blanca Schofield-Legorburo

As someone interested in both the representation of women in media and in a career in the field, I was so excited when I saw that a new society had been set up this year for Women in Media. I quickly sent an email to the committee asking if I could be involved, then received a really friendly reply and went to a welcome meeting.

The founders, Anya Cooper and Natalie Brierley, have shown such enthusiasm in spreading awareness of their new society, but also of the broader image we receive of women in media, be it music, TV, journalism or another area. In just under two months they have managed to put together what looks to be an amazing conference in the Union, with six keynote speakers who are prominent in the media, taking place on the 3^rd March. I recently sat down with these two lovely ladies to talk about the conference and what this society means to them.

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What inspired you to start this society?

Natalie: We were so surprised that there wasn’t already a WiM society in Cambridge, considering that there is such a big journalism, blog, podcast and creative presence here. We want this to be not just for networking, but also to discuss ideas around the ways in which women are presented. It is important for women to be more present in all careers within media as if there are no women in those roles then the way they are presented will inevitably be skewed.

Anya: This summer I helped organise a conference by Amnesty International on Student Journalism; there I met students from Manchester who had already established a WiM society in their university. A national initiative was then started whereby societies would be set up in several universities in order to build a network of female support across the UK.

Tell us about your launch night with the Hip-Hop society

Natalie: We co-organised a hip-hop society night as a kind of launch for us, which was for fundraising, but also for celebrating this platform for women in music. Music is still an area where women are strangely under-represented, particularly in styles such as hip-hop and, in fact, the Hip-Hop society is looking for more female members.

What are your hopes for this conference you have planned?

Anya: We are hoping that this conference will empower aspiring women and NB students and will give an insight into the nuances of different experiences in the field. For example, this summer I saw Lindsey Hilsum from Channel 4 speak about her career as a reporter in war torn countries. She explained how, unlike their male counterparts, female correspondents pretty much always get 100% of the story in the Middle East, as they are given access to communicating with more people in these areas: as a woman, they are seen as less of a threat. I don’t know about anyone else, but I become frustrated when every women’s talk I attend is restricted to talking about how women are repressed. These conversations need to be supplemented by evidence of empowerment and achievements. This is why Hilsum’s ideas about how being a woman can be used as a tool in unexpected ways in journalism were so inspiring to me. It is also important to represent the different intersectionalities in our society and culture, and so we have women from various backgrounds coming to speak.

What are some thoughts that you have been having on women in media?

Anya: We want to include male allies and hear their experiences about journalism and about working with women. We think it is fundamental that men are included in the conversation, as dialogue is such a significant element of any solution.

Natalie: There can be a tendency for women to be pressured to cover topics only about women – they should feel confident to cover that but also more!

Anya: We need to tackle the objectification of women – this is essential because issues around Women in Media go beyond the boundaries of the profession. Media is everything that we consume – it is not limited to journalism but everything we watch, listen to, read – it fundamentally effects, and often skews, our perceptions as a whole.

What are your future plans?

We want to make the conference an annual occurrence! We are also currently discussing ideas around organising an art show which looks at the way female and NB bodies are presented in media – if anyone is interested in being involved do let us know! We are also thinking of including men in a panel and hearing about their experiences of working with women and representing women, and see how we can create an open collaborative atmosphere. CV workshop events will also be on the agenda for those who are focused on the career aspect.

After this year’s conference we will be looking for a committee as half of us are graduating! It is so important to us that this society continues to flourish and so we hope to organise more and more opportunities and events.

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Thus my conversation came to and end with these women, who are so motivated, fun and friendly! Make sure to book your tickets for their fantastic conference, the first ever of its kind in Cambridge, which is taking place at the Union on the 3^rd March.

All information can be found here:

https://fixr.co/event/584154752?fbclid=IwAR1ca0YCmCvSgOuucDxtRZtyNbZlJSbVMcjqQgBTU1K_obox0BS3cVbt0yM

Julia Lasica 

Following on from Blanca’s doodles last week, I thought I would document this week with drawings, too. Like any week in Cambridge, it was filled with lots of varying ups and downs, exhaustion and also the most fun I’ve had in quite a while – days here are so oddly spaced out, hardly seeming to begin before the sky starts to darken and the library lights click on, signalling that yet another little seventh of yet another week in Cambridge is drawing to a close. It does make me feel slightly nervous, how structured each day is, and that when I arrive at its end, it seems I have filled in a box, which carries me closer to the end of term – but sketching for five minutes slowed this down and allowed me to think about marks on a page other than the letters in the essay I was writing. On Monday, I stretched the definition a little, and included just some grass I had picked up and decided to press in a notebook.

None of the drawings are accurate depictions of all the things which happened in my day and flowers did not really stand tall and bright around me as I worked away in the library. But I found that adding small twists like the thin layers of light pink and blue brought my days a little bit of magic which perhaps they were lacking, objectively. Week Four at Cambridge wasn’t what I wished it had been, in terms of how long I spent outside the library at concerts, or at talks, or any of the other events everyone always seems to be going to and talking about afterwards. But there were more than enough moments of excitement which stretched through my days, and now allow these drops of happiness in pink and blue to make their way into my drawings.

 

 

 

 

Bea Carpenter

Unless you lead a Facebook-free life then you probably won’t have failed to notice that this week in Cambridge it is Pink Week! It came to Cambridge in 2014 and entails a week of both fundraising and events with the overall aim of raising awareness of breast cancer. It begins with a ball and is followed by a series of events from exercise classes to formals. The week is also about education: the committee aim not only to de-stigmatize the often ‘taboo’ topic but also to inform women (and men!) at our university of how to check for any abnormalities, so as to improve early detection rates and prevent unnecessary scares or anxiety.

I am not in the amazing team behind pink week this year, but I did attend the panel discussion they organised on Monday evening at the Union. It was a conversation chaired by Sofia Weiss between four incredible women who work in various fields concerning breast cancer, from the charity aspect to a breast cancer surgeon. Half of the panel had also experienced breast cancer including blogger and motivational speaker Heidi Loughlin, author of ‘Storminatitcup’, who has stage four inflammatory cancer and Liz O’Riordan, a breast surgeon who was diagnosed with stage 3 cancer in 2015 and recently finished treatment for a local relapse. The conversation shared was insightful and informed, prompted by excellent questions from Sofia Weiss and the audience members.

Something that really made me think was the discussion of “Pink publicity” and the pink label we have given breast cancer. It reminded me just how important the way we paint a topic in society really is. Given that men get breast cancer too, pink could be seen as exclusionary in its traditional gender role. However, we are slowly erasing these gender binaries and, moreover, breast cancer is broadly speaking a woman’s issue, as though men can develop it and should be aware of the warning signs, for the 54,800 cases seen in woman each year in the UK only 390 men are diagnosed (Cancer Research Uk statistics). Another issue with pink is that it is often seen as a somewhat innocent, sweet and happy colour, thus begging the question: does pink branding trivialize the important issue at hand?

The panel had plenty of thoughts on this topic. Heidi remarked “pink stinks” and confessed to hating the colour, but still recognized the value it has in spreading awareness of breast cancer and how various retail brands can use it as a talking point or a way to raise money for research. The danger seems to be that pink is often abused. The panel mentioned inappropriate products they’d seen in pink, such as “pink ghds”, when people with cancer so often lose their hair due to chemotherapy, or pink gin when alcohol can’t be drunk by those undergoing treatment and is a risk factor of cancer to begin with. These seemingly commendable charitable products can come across as distasteful and insensitive. There is also the danger of pink being misused in advertising and retail in the absence of any fundraising or awareness, with the colour simply being commodified.

A representative from Breast Cancer Now spoke about the charity’s recent efforts to ensure their branding was appropriate for their audience, introducing grey into their logo for example, but that pink was still used because it had become a sort of symbol. It is a colour we all associate with breast cancer, largely thanks to Estee Lauders’ pink ribbon campaign that began in 1992 following her own experience with breast cancer, with their commitment to helping create a “breast cancer free world” doing wonders.

Although clearly problematic, pink can also be empowering for those with or who have been through breast cancer. It can be worn in solidarity by other members of the public and is often a way to inject a little joy into a painful journey for many.

Pink week is an example of the power of pink. It strikes a perfect balance between putting on unique and fun events to attract attention and interest while simultaneously providing resources on education and the support systems available, accompanied by enormous charitable efforts.

Another buzzword of the panel was ‘battle’, something we often use to describe people’s journeys with cancer. For some survivors it can be an empowering self-identification to refer to themselves as ‘warriors’ as it signals their strength and acts as a mark of what they’ve been through. But for women like Heidi who has an incurable form of breast cancer, labeling it as a ‘fight’ makes her feel she has been put, without choice, into a category of ‘losers’ along with the other women who die because of their breast cancer. Although it can have the greatest intentions, referring to someone who has been through cancer as a ‘fighter’ or ‘warrior’ is a slippery slope and potentially results in that person becoming defined by their cancer.

The panel discussed a plethora of other issues including the controversial topic of screening lead by Dr Rosalind Given-Wilson a consultant at St.Georges hospital and a discussion on the lack of desperately needed post-chemotherapy mental health support in the healthcare system.

Yet the main thing I took away from this panel was just how important it is to consider the way we discuss cancer and display our support for those diagnosed. We must be careful not to tiptoe around it, but also ensure we are sensitive, un-patronising and aware of the impact our words and actions can have and not underestimate the power of pink.

If you would like to also use pink wisely and support Cambridge Pink Week you can! Their own merchandise is available to purchase, linked below and check out the rest of their website for more information on what they do and why.

Pink week stash – https://www.cambridgepinkweek.com/pink-week-ball/stash/

Pink week website – https://www.cambridgepinkweek.com/

Alternatively you can support incredible charities funding vital research and education in all sorts of ways, a few are linked below.

CoppaFeel – https://coppafeel.org/

Breast Cancer now – https://breastcancernow.org/

Breast cancer care – https://www.breastcancercare.org.uk/

 A small contribution I made last year was  purchasing a tee shirt from the incredible Girl vs Cancer tit-tee shop. Mine is adorned with embroidered bees but they have some great designs worth checking out and other products like bags, jumpers etc. plus 25% of all profits go to their partner charities. It was set up by Lauren Mahon who was diagnosed with breast cancer when she was under the age of 30 and aims to “open a dialogue on this sensitive subject” and stop “scaremongering” in the media from putting people off getting their symptoms checked. All round a great venture to support.

GirlvsCancer – https://girlvscancer.co.uk/shop/

Featured image source: Pacing Around the World Photography

Blanca Schofield-Legorburo 

When I was younger I would often doodle absent-mindedly, filling pages of workbooks and diaries and spending hours on different collages and flowers or decorated calligraphy, – an eclectic mix! Yet as is too often the case with getting older and feeling the pressure to tick all of the relevant boxes, to fill our time “productively”, these doodle-filled moments were cast aside.

Happily, though, I am learning to ignore that nagging feeling that bothers me whenever I take some time to myself, and have slowly but surely re-activated my doodling self. This new-found enthusiasm was spurred on by our collage nights last term, and then also with the idea given to me by Alice Tyrrell, playwright extraordinaire and creator of the Instagram account @alicedrawsdaily. When I surprised her with the request for a fun fact while on radio, Alice told me about her idea of drawing something every day of 2018 and how she had followed through with it; I felt really inspired to start this myself, as I have always thought of keeping a diary for moments, ideas or moods, or even for the vivid dreams that sometimes startle me in the night.

January 2019 has come to an end and I am really happy to report that I have kept up my daily doodles for the whole month! They are not sophisticated and coloured, nor are they works of extreme prowess or attention, but they do capture something of the days they represent and have helped me reconnect with the younger, more relaxed, day-dreaming me.

Thus, here is my Cambridge week 2 in doodles:

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

So there it is! My week 2 with rough, scrawled characters and figures – my week 2 in beloved doodles!

Cover image: my drawing for the last day of January 2019 – first day of week 3