Hello! Welcome to Crispie Edges April 2024.
First, at 56% smooth peanut butter for the win on February’s poll (makes me very happy with my readership preferences). At the end of this newsletter a new question will be waiting for you .)
I have had some evidential hope that my dental annus horribilis might be ending, countered with some major setbacks. I still feel very much in the woods, and trying desperately to keep believing this might end. The short story is I have had dental/facial/nerve pain for just over a year now, which has brought me to dentists and oral surgeons in Ireland, Sweden, Portugal, Utah, and finally, North Dakota, where I am writing this newsletter as I recover from surgery.
It has been a busy two months, with the Butler show now closed I am going into hibernation mode with studio work, admin, applications, and primarily attempting to get my health back on track.
Studio News
I have added drawings to my website for sale!
Margarita Cappock wrote a lovely piece summarizing When Worlds Collide in the Irish Arts Review
ND Council on the Arts published a piece I wrote regarding sense of place and you can read it on their website or on my Substack home page
Two pieces of mine have been enlarged and put on display at Carrickmines Park photo benches, the theme ‘house painters’ and will be on display until June. (image below)
ie explains (aka snippets)
I am steadily adding to my Substack for paid subscribers, mainly in the format of ‘ie explains’. I call these small stories attached to the paintings ‘snippets’. My most recent post about a childhood treat I made after reading Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss.
If you enjoy the ‘ie explains’ section of the newsletter click below to upgrade for more.
Whenever I come back to ND I end up going through piles of paintings, and as a visual diarist each painting transports me to the experience or memory that prompted the paintings I find. I came across this postcard size painting of one of my first loaves of sourdough baking in the oven.
At the end of 2019 I had been in Germany for around two months. I was in the middle of a relationship ending and to cope with the time I had on my hands I painted and dove deep into sourdough baking. The art of sourdough was a mental kerfuffle for me. After building my starter over two weeks, and finding a dutch oven I began my first loaf. I am an anxious learner, always mistrusting my actions worrying if I am doing it right, I had so much anxiety around learning sourdough that on the morning of any baking day I would have sweaty palms, by the time the loaf came out of then oven I needed a two hour nap to regulate my exhaustion.
When baking a loaf of sourdough in a Dutch oven there is a three stage process:
Heat the dutch oven in the oven in the oven for 1 hour
Swiftly place the dough inside the Dutch oven and put the lid on (to generate steam, which aids in more lift, and a better crumb)
After about 30 minutes remove the lid and continue baking (this allows a crispy dark crust to form)
When the lid is removed after the second stage there is a drum roll playing in my head, it is pulling back of the curtain for a big reveal: Will it rise as I had hoped? Or will I be faced with a pancake and disappointment? The loaf pictured gave me the former, and in my excitement I wanted to stare this loaf down for the remaining 20 minutes, watching the golden crust slowly forming. Instead, I grabbed my easel and painted my joy.
I still have this starter and have fed it daily for 4 years. I have not baked with it much in the last year because of my pain, but keeping it alive is a thread of hope that one day Ill be baking again and painting these simple things that bring me so much fulfillment.
Recs
Watch
Oppenheimer I know everyone is raving, and it took me far too long to watch, but I finally did on a long haul flight. I found the pace of the film the most intriguing. The irreconcilable issues of what he achieved with the atomic bomb mirrored in the use of short camera shots; and non linear time travel between Oppenheimers life events that led to success on one hand, and destruction on the other.
Read
The Vulnerables By Sigrid Nunez, a novelist who can take on normally eye rolling topics (in this case the pandemic) and create a page turner that is funny, real and relatable about a woman enjoying isolation until it is interrupted by an extrovert.
Listen
A podcast about hope, Tara Brach’s weekly lectures have brought me some critical insights and interruptions on how to change my perspective and how to cope with life’s challenges.
Eat
Siggis skyr is a food I look forward to when I come back to ND, currently I am eating more than I might prefer, but it has not lost its charm. Recently I added stewed apples with cinnamon and a drizzle of caramel to cheer me up.
Kobucha squash is another item I am eating a solid amount of, it has a nuttiness that again I am not yet sick of...yet.
Edible raw cookie dough was gifted to me by my friend Molly and it tastes like the interior of a Reeses PB cup. I can safely eat all I want being the flour is heat treated before being used, recipe below.
Edible Peanut Butter Cookie Dough
65g Flour
113g Butter
128g Creamy peanut butter
100g Sugar
¼ tsp Salt
1 Tbsp Vanilla
First spread flours on a baking tray and place in a 300F/150C oven (alternatively microwave for 1-1 ½ minutes) until internal temp is 180 F or 82 C. Whisk to remove lumps and let cool. In a stand mixer beat butter, peanut butter, sugar, salt and vanilla until fluffy. Add the flour and gently mix in. Ready to eat straight out of the bowl, or store in the fridge up to a week.
Lastly, thank you again for reading and subscribing! The poll below will help me develop what is working best in this here newsletter. And if you are really inclined comment below.
xo-ie
See you in June!