40 days, 40 dips

Oh and the endless creative journey ✏️💭

HELLO! Welcome to the first of the daily dip diaries! To start off, they’re not coming to you daily don’t worry, I’m aiming for triweekly (a word?). I’m also not completely sure where this series are going to go, what format they will continue to take, or what the posts will fully end up exploring, but initially I do know I want to link together my artistic explorations of my experience of the sea, while diarising my daily dips. Both intensely fascinating for me in their own way, and by linking them together, it will be interesting to see what common themes will start to emerge between artistic practice and physical experience. I've always loved recording, writing a diary since I was young, and more recently my travel sketchbooks have been a mixture of journal and visual sketches, which is what I’m hoping to translate onto here, I hope it to be something personal and insightful, different content to my instagram, and not here to sell or advertise. 

Ah yes about the travel - if you're new to here somehow, I have been travelling much of the last couple of years in my cosy self converted van, my art studio on wheels. Granted, I tend to hug the coast, but the van takes me wherever I want to go, and allows me to create wherever I want to create.

Inspired by those who came before

One of my earlier September dips, down in County Clare, ft. Darla my little coastguard!

I started the day I arrived back into Ireland, my daily dips. Through a long hot summer in Italy I had been working away on my Vitamin Sea MA project, an animation designed to reach millennial women's social media - highlighting the benefits of the ocean for mental health, and was half way through reading ‘Why we swim’ by Bonnie Tsu alongside. From my research I was armed with all these new insights into the historical and social contexts, and health benefits of why people swim. I was feeling hella inspired and excited to get to the crisp cold water of Ireland following a summer of 30 degrees C sea temperatures (a tough life I know - I am sorry). I follow some amazing Irish women who dip the whole year round, and thanks to community led groups like Salty Sea Sisters and Sister of Wild hitting nationally through social media, the cold water swimming trend here just feels like it scoops you up with it - you’re rarely alone in the water in your swimmers (or wetsuit!).

‘that spiraling weightlessness, that privileged access to a muted underworld.’ - Bonnie Tsu. Some of the early character sketches from Vitamin Sea. Before I had even read 'Why we swim', my annotations refer to the same weightlessness and dreamlike qualities that Bonnie Tsu writes of.

The cold water swimming movement in Ireland is easy to spot all along the coastline - but it is something that has been around for a long time. I see many older generations dipping in the cold water, enjoying a chat and then a tea after.

Mel Chell wrote for Medium that after her swims she feels "brave and strong and resilient and like I could take on anything in the world." and I can completely relate, especially in these waters that feel so wild here in Ireland. 

40 days, 40 dips

Reflecting back on 40 days spent in the sea in some shape or form. A broken phone from an enthusiastic wave in the Bundoran sea pool, on a flat day - a paddle out from Lahinch beach to around the cliffs, stepping on a weaver fish, heroically just one jellyfish sting out of many jellyfish spotted, the pride surfing my biggest swell to date, a group swim with Jack and India after our beach van camp out the night before, a swim in Doolin harbour giving me life again in the midst of suspected Covid.

The tiny fish with a big sting! Weever fish can be found all along the coast of Ireland and tuck themselves down into the sandy sea floor, to treat the sting you have to stick your foot into 40 degree water to draw out the venom.

Today sitting here in my van, in the small surfing town of Portrush on the north coast of Ireland, I have today's dip yet to dip. The forecast is telling me winds are currently hitting 42mph, and it feels it! The sea is full of energy, seabirds are taking huge dramatic dives, and I haven’t seen a soul enter the water yet today.

Some days the impending dip has loomed over me over the day - but they’re always the same days that I am most ecstatic when I exit the sea. A study in 2000 found that cold water immersion can increase dopamine levels by 530%, and I take all that energy she has given me to put into the rest of my day.

Vitamin Sea storyboard - the accompanying audio narration begins a slow meandering pace, and then as the serenity of the ocean prompts her to reflect on a busy, burnt out life the pace frantically from frames 39 - 57, until she comes gasping up for air.

And now in between writing this first newsletter, I’ve completed my 40th dip - a surprise beautiful late afternoon surf on a nearby beach sheltered from the wind. The water felt icy today - I believe the temperature is now down to 14 degrees, and with that northeasterly wind I could start to imagine what going into winter here in the North Atlantic will be like. And back at my desk, with a cup of tea looking over the ocean, and it’s movement in the disappearing evening light, it appears to be breathing.

One of my most memorable surfs - when the waves were a bit high for me, I hung out the back, nervous to come much more forward where the waves were breaking. This seal friend came and stayed with me and kept me reassured!

Colder waters are coming

Looking forward to future dips, and the future of this newsletter, I'm really excited about where they're going to go. I've got colder temperatures, wilder weather, and bigger swells coming here in Ireland, before a winter escape to Portugal where the Atlantic will be marginally warmer, and I will get a blessing of more hours of daylight, and more sunshine to boot. I have no doubt that Portuguese sunshine will seep into my illustrations and sketches and then into this newsletter!

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So there is my first issue. I hope to see you here next time too (I’m aiming for triweekly/ once a month - let’s see how it goes?), and as a tremendous thank you for tuning in with me today on my first ever newsletter, I'm giving you a 10% discount on my shop with code: Thankyou10, where you'll find lots of dreamy and colourful prints, and some water ones too. I have some fun ideas in mind for future subscriber treats too!

If you haven’t - then do subscribe (it’s my birthday today - if that’s another way to persuade you), and I’ll see you again soon (though not too soon)! x

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1. I hope you enjoyed this issue! You’ll be able to find me and my drawings on instagram and on LinkedIn until the next issue comes out in a few weeks time :)