Setting off on my new path - the path of the lone creative - has always been a mixture of exhilaration and intrepidation. Since leaving my corporate job, there are honestly next to no elements that I miss even slightly (phew). The bureaucracy, the politics; Powerpoints and presentations; the Monday-to-Friday merry-go-round and the inconvenience of not being able to do your food shop on a quiet Tuesday…I wouldn’t go back.

*My new path has meant long days spent with Monty and I don’t regret a second. Image* *Justyna Kulam*

But People.

I miss the people.

Because, well, people are the glue that hold anything together; whether it be Glastonbury or a bus que: non of it is possible without us:

The comrades, the close-colleagues, the work-wives; the soon-to-be-best-mates who share long weeks, lacklustre lunches, Friday fizz, the success and corporate misery alike. For better or worse, in any profession, people make it. And I miss my people.

My old life. Jaguar Land Rover Colour & Material Design 2018: The amazing team of creatives that I had the utmost pleasure to work with between the years of 2013-2020 - Most of whom I remain in close contact with.

Community, kinship and kindness are all values I hold dear; and whilst the solitude of the artisan profession is needed and appreciated most of the time; I’ve been really keen to find ways to continue to collaborate and build a community with other creatives: To find my people.

It’s no secret that Justyna Kulam and I have worked together creatively since 2021; we met by a mutual creative Maud Goldberg via Instagram and since that first DM, we instantly clicked in heart, humour and mind, and have never looked back.

After 20 years in the beauty industry Justyna quit it all to answer the calling of her camera. In so many ways her story completely mirrors mine, and (though she never likes to hear this) she inspires me more and more everyday - and always has. She’s my people.

*Justyna* *and her camera: never one without the other.*

She’s completely self taught, and amazingly talented: she’s grounded and generous and open and pragmatic: she’s loyal, she’s brave and honest. She can tell you when something is amazing and when something looks like shit; and you’d be hard pushed to meet someone as hardworking as she is.

She’s also made me look fantastic in pictures on every single occasion, but her work is way more than that. It gifts me with an unimaginable confidence in my work, my abilities and my business: through the eyes of Justyna, I believe in myself. Probably for the first time, ever. And that’s what makes her and her work so special.

Moving picture from my debut collection. Justyna Kulam

And yet, we’re both shit scared. This is all new to us both, and different; we have no idea what we’re doing half of the time, but somehow we bolster each other daily. We whine and share wine, and words and love and podcasts; we cross check each other’s ideas and thoughts; we’ve got each other’s backs 100, and obviously we’re both hilarious (which helps).

We Justyna came up with this analogy: that we’re like two bending, half dead trees. Twisted, together and holding each other up. A depressing outlook you might say (we’re both pretty miserable most of the time :D), but this vision has always given me strength and hope.

*Just a couple of dying trees: I think we’re both there on the right…*

Because, in a sea of ‘perfection’ and comparison; the outside world often seems all too spotless. In our minds-eye everyone is smashing it, everyone is ‘selling out’; they all have stunning homes and gorgeous endlessly supportive partners or perfect children. We think no one else gets crippled in self-doubt, or pain, or existential meltdowns: we feel like everyone else has it figured out.

But we haven’t. Nobody has.

And If I’m learning one thing from leaning into fellow and brave ‘lone’ creatives: it is that following the calling to create is daunting. Daunting and scary and challenging and slow sometimes. We’re all opening our hearts and minds with the high chance that we’re rejected along the way, or misunderstood or secretly stashing 100 unsold works in the basement and panicking….

And so we’re not ‘lone’ at all in this. We’re all together. We can hold each other in this life, we can bend towards the darkness; holding each other up in the smallest of ways, on the most inconsequential days: Just like Justyna and I do.

For more information about Justyna, the amazing work she has commissioned for me and many others, feel free to check her website , Instagram or contact her at hello@justynakulam.com (this is not a paid partnership! Just a simple lone creative telling you how great a fellow lone creative is).

Friendship, Collaboration, and the Story of Two Dying Trees.

Introducing Anna Kora Bartyzel

Studio Summer Sale