India at Hermans.

“No, no crying in my house.”

I always remember my lovely grandad Bruno saying this in his stern Indian accent. It used to frighten me a little but he meant well and wanted his grandchildren to be happy in his house. My grandad died when I was six but I remember his character well, he was a traditional Goan man with strong family values, extremely caring and good with children. He had a head tremor because moving to England had been stressful for him and he found it hard to fit in. Looking back to when me and my siblings would be at my grandparents, we were always given snacks of nuts, bombay mix and dried mango... not your usual supermarket buys. Their house was also dotted with Indian styled furnishings among other bits and bobs. In our own house in Southend my dad would have all sorts of spices and herbs filling the kitchen, buying us strange exotic fruits when he could find some and loving his collection of world music. I feel as though these little things have influenced the cultural links in my work today. 

In 2018 I was in my last year of university studying Illustration. I decided to do my final major project on my parents stories of moving from Africa to England (my mum is British but grew up in Libya as her dad worked there and my dad is Goan but at that time lots of Goan’s lived in Kenya). This project had taught me so many things, not just about my parents but about different times and ways of living, something we can all learn from. I felt that this project was just the beginning of more to explore. 

I soon decided with my former course mate, Sarah Martin (an ink and watercolour queen), that we should go out to India and do an artist residency. One of my last Indian relatives lives in Goa so we came to stay with him and then planned to start our residency we had got into with Chhaap printmaking programme, in Baroda. 

I have wanted to start a blog on my illustration work and what inspires me so I thought now that we are out here what better time to start. 

Our experience so far has been so much more than I expected, although I wouldn’t want to sugarcoat India. There is a lot of poverty here, rubbish is all over the place, as a western woman the men can really stare and make you feel uncomfortable and peoples nature can seem aggressive until you become used to it. But amongst all of this there is a great buzz, there are characters of all kinds, women in beautiful sarees and jewellery, wildlife you would never expect to see in urban areas, beeping and honking, shouting and spitting, smells that make you want to run a mile, smells of the most delicious food ever, explosions of colour and decorations across houses to buses and free roaming cows. There is an atmosphere I am sure you would only be able to find here. It is crazy but it is also amazing. 

What I have found most touching has been staying with my relative, Herman. I did not realise before coming here that he lives in an old portugese styled house which has been in the family for generations and is 300 years old. The house is beautiful. It is very basic, with traditional Goan decoration. There is no shower or modern conveniences such as a washing machine or oven. Herman will sleep on a mat on the floor, he has a bed but prefers not to use it as he is used to sleeping on a mat from childhood. He will wash with bucket and water, wash his clothes by hand and uses just a gas hob to do all of his incredible cooking. It is a simple way of life and although it is simple within the house you can feel so much history, so much activity. It is a wonderful feeling to know I am walking in the house of my ancestors, especially Grandad Bruno who was so influenced by Goan life. 

I now have so many ideas to work on whilst me and Sarah start this residency; to put the things I have seen and the stories I have been told into pictures. We live in such a fast paced society where convenience is always at hand, here I have seen how a different culture live their day to day life.

I have been really lucky to be able to stay with a relative who still lives a similar lifestyle to my ancestors and to be able to walk where my grandad and great grandad did is an experience I will never forget. But I do not want this to be an experience just for myself, I want to share it through my art so that others can see how looking back can change the way you look forward. 

Me and Sarah will be doing independent as well as collaborative work whilst we are on our one month residency, ending with an exhibition. It is going to be a busy month but we are looking forward to putting all of the things we have seen into pictures and hopefully you will too!