The studio experiment
Free play, good friends, family dinners, and a few things to watch
This newsletter is: 31% creative practice, 24% life & relationships, 18% culture, 15% food, 12% observation & commentary. All 100% me.
Hi Bestie,
Studio week was insightful. There really is something in going somewhere else to work. No distractions, no excuses, no other tasks pulling at you.
I illustrated, I read, I wrote, I thought, I looked.
It’s quiet there. I share the space with four others and in three visits I only saw one of them.
The Juliet Report has a room to think.
Studio Note
One day last week I tried something I’m calling Free Play.
I brought in books I’ve owned for years, full of prompts and exercises I’ve always meant to do something with. I sat with them, read magazines I’d never opened, and followed a prompt: An ideal day.
It looked like this:
waking slowly, coffee and a croissant in bed
reading without checking the time
showering, getting dressed, music playing
a long, meandering walk, bookshop, café, notes
the park, a sandwich, staying until it’s time to leave
a grocer, looking at packaging, produce, choosing something small
home, a cocktail, unwinding with Sam
getting dressed again, going out for dinner
back to bed, books, tea, sleep
I love that I already live most of this. It's what my days and weeks are made of.
What does yours look like?
Life Report
The ideal day is made up of small things. So is a good life. And a lot of it comes down to the people you share it with.
I’ve been thinking about how much our friends shape our lives.
One couple introduced us to Monopoly Deal. Another to frozen mochi, strange, soft, perfect little desserts. The same friends came over for dinner, brought cookie dough, baked it fresh, and left us extra for later. We baked them a few nights ago and were in heaven.
Another friend brought us coffee beans from Hector's. It wasn't just the coffee. It was the thought. Each time we made coffee using those beans it was made extra special, knowing our friends thought of us. It was delicious too, and made the morning ritual so much more meaningful.
What I Did
May is full of family. Dad’s birthday, Mother’s Day, Mum’s birthday, Bajram.
For Dad, we went to Rita’s Pizza. We’ve had it as takeaway many times but dining in was different. The room has energy. The service was friendly and fun, everything arrived at the right temperature, seasoned perfectly.
Hot chips with aioli, salad with vinaigrette, and the pizzas: margherita, potato, mushroom. Dad had the napoletana.
Everything was exceptional.
Observation
Why is it impossible to book for seven people without committing to a feed-me menu?
I contacted at least six venues. Everywhere the answer was the same: $60 to $80 per head, minimum. That’s $560 before anyone has ordered a drink.
That’s not the kind of dinner we were after. And my dad, who is a picky eater, definitely wouldn’t want that.
At Rita’s it was perfect. They let us order exactly what we wanted.
Have you noticed this too? Is there a specific reason venues do this?
What I’m Reading
I finished Slouching Towards Bethlehem and started Ways of Seeing.
This is my 15th book this year. All because I banned the tiny screen from the bedroom. Life changing.
What I Watched / Listened To
Cooking as an Art, with Jerry Saltz | The Dave Chang Show This is a podcast episode I first listened to in 2019 and keep coming back to. The whole conversation is full of intelligence and inspiration. This time, what stayed with me most was Jerry Saltz explaining Duchamp to Dave Chang. Which led me directly to the next thing.
The Many Forms of Marcel Duchamp | Hilton Als Like Dave Chang, I didn't know much about Duchamp. The only reference I had was the readymade toilet that popped up in my mind. After reading this piece in the New Yorker by Hilton Als, my mind was wide open. I really enjoyed looking up the works Als mentions while reading about them. My favourite part, beyond learning about Duchamp himself, was this quote:
“The poor Mona Lisa is gone because no matter how wonderful her smile may be, it’s been looked at so much that the smile has disappeared. I believe that when a million people look at a painting, they change the thing by looking alone. Physically. There is an action, transcendental, of course, that absolutely destroys whatever you could see when it was alive.”
It made me wonder what Duchamp would think if he were alive today and saw what the Mona Lisa has become.
“Look with Both Eyes” - David Hockney | Serpentine Sam and I have become obsessed with Hockney. Any time Sam thinks of Hockney and his work, his eyes well up. After we watched this, Sam said "I don't want him to die."
Sam’s mum sent me this to watch. She’d just had her book club on the book she lent me, Spring Cannot Be Cancelled by Martin Gayford. It was funny, actually. In her research online about the book, she accidentally came across my book report on my website. A month or so ago we also watched a documentary on Hockney. The way he paints the people in his life and the landscapes around him is pure love in art form.
We’ve got a situation in New York City | Casey Neistat The other week Sam made me aware that Casey Neistat is back to vlogging and got us to watch this episode together. We learnt soon after we began dating that we were both obsessed with Casey when he was vlogging daily. We didn't know each other, but were both religiously watching him. If you don't know who Casey is, he's a filmmaker based in NYC, inspiring and a good storyteller. Sam specifically wanted me to see the part where Casey shows files of archived letters he's received and collected over the years. That is literally me. He also wanted me to see it because I'd just gotten my first studio. Casey's studio is very cool.
The 2026 Met Gala: Bezoses, Beyonce, and Blood | Rachel Syme
I really enjoyed reading Rachel Syme’s piece on the Met Gala. I particularly enjoyed learning about Madame X, which led me to a painting I hadn’t seen before: The Birthday Party, 1885, by John Singer Sargent. Lauren Sánchez’s look was inspired by another Madame X portrait, which is what sent me down this path.
The painting stopped me. The scene, the colours, the composition. The woman in red slicing the birthday cake, the man standing in the shadow behind her, the child at the edge of the frame. I sketched it in my sketchbook straight away.
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That was last week and I’m looking forward to this one. Enjoy yours. Say thank you more often.
Jx
We have the same thing in Sydney with the set menu! I was searching for a venue that will do dinner for 8 in a couple of weeks time and honestly it’s hard to find a set menu here under $75 a head. There are casual restaurants, pubs etc, but it’s pretty much a standard.