My beloved organised a wonderful few days off for our anniversary. He’s been trying to introduce me, after many years of wandering the world, to his own country. I’ve seen embarrassingly little of my adopted land (the UK) - or for that matter of my homeland (Canada). But it’s time. In my 60s, I find I have little desire to get on the planes that have defined my life to date. Getting in the (electric) car to go on vacation is refreshingly fuss-free and feels more acceptable than buying carbon credits. Walking has displaced flying as vacation-making speed.
So off we went to the Western extremity of this little island. Not all the way to Lands’ End, but to the equally delightfully named Mousehole. It merits its name, as its picture-perfect port is like a tiny Southern safety circle from the sea, blocked during the winter by a pile of huge logs. They were ceremonially lifted by a huge crane, to much celebratory cheering, one fresh spring morning during our visit. I could watch the whole ceremony from the bathtub of a perfect hotel room, framed by 180-degree-windows overlooking the sea, the port, and the little bobbing fishing boats bringing in our dinner. (Room 5 at The Old Coastguard).
But we came to this end of the world on a pilgrimage. My sometime sculptor-husband’s idol has always been Barbara Hepworth, one of the UK’s leading artistic lights. Deservedly. Her gorgeous, rounded (and sometimes highly strung) forms can be found across the globe - including in front of the UN building in New York. Dag Hammarskjöld, former Secretary-General of the UN, was a friend and fan. But if you ever get a chance, wander west to St Ives in Cornwall to visit the beautiful studio and garden she bought at age 46. Here she stayed through her hugely productive Q3 years, until her early and not very happy death at 72 from a cigarette-ignited fire.
Her studio-turned-museum sits in the centre of St Ives, a busy touristy town on the Northern Coast of Cornwall, hidden behind a towering stone wall. It is a dream of a ‘room of one’s own.’ An enclosed garden, a house, and several separate studio spaces with a view of the sea and the cathedral. A haven where she worked tirelessly after her Q2 years, two husbands and four kids (of which triplets!). As her work and international reputation swelled, she bought the building next door, the Palais de Danse (recently also gifted to the public, it will open in a few years). This gave her the space to build increasingly monumental pieces.
In her will, she wanted her home, her base and her art to be an accessible legacy open to the public. It’s now part of the Tate. It seems a gift and a call to Q3 women everywhere. She was born in 1903, and managed to get to art college and to early success. She moved to Cornwall in 1939 just before the outbreak of WWII. But it wasn’t until after war, divorce and the loss of a son, that she would inhabit this corner of paradise and make her tumultuous life her own, on her own, seemingly prickly and not always popular terms. I couldn’t help but hear, as I wandered the scented, flowered paths, dotted with her visionary forms, the invitation to other women to claim their space and their voices. And a room of their own.
So it was only thematically fitting that on our last day in Cornwall, we wandered over the Minack Theatre and discovered the astonishing tale of Rowena Cade. This feisty woman also moved to Cornwall after a World War (the First) and the loss of her father, in the 1920s. She built a house at the top of a craggy cliff head and began to find her voice in her 40s when happenstance had her offer her garden to a local Shakespeare production. From there, she built on the idea of a theatre by the sea. Right under her house. It’s what she had to hand. That, and a talent for design, costumes and drama.
Cade devoted the rest of her life to almost single-handedly building, carving and digging a theatre out of stone and cliff. Aided only by a gardener, she lugged decades worth of concrete up and down the cliff face, embellishing her vision by embroiling a couple of men into her charming, seemingly irresistible web. Her theatre-by-the-sea soon grew into one of Europe’s most beautiful open-air theatres, hanging in elegant stony wonder over brilliant blue Cornish waters.
Cade is a good lesson in how to age. She lived until the ripe old age of 90, full of purpose, vision and devotion to a single project. Growing success and an enthusiastic local audience surely helped. She was still lugging, stone carving and working well into her 80s. The record of what was played at Minack from 1932 onwards is etched in stone, a proud legacy now alive with people, plays and concerts six months of each year.
These two exceptional women are worth a trip to Cornwall, to admire the spaces and art they have gifted us. A generation apart, these women devoted themselves - especially in Q3 - to their powerful visions. They threw everything they had at it - and it shows. In the potent curves of Hepworth’s uncompromisingly feminine bronzes or Cade’s celtic patterns carved into the side of a Cornish cliff. Both places are buzzing with future generations appreciatively admiring these ladies’ courage and commitment. I overheard one Q3 lady after watching the film about Cade admit to her friend “that I’m in constant tears - at what she managed to do, and how steadfastly she did it.”
Both women are perfect examples of what Georgetown computer science professor Cal Newport calls ‘slow productivity,’ also the title of his latest book. He says our ideas about productivity are broken, and our inability to manage and measure knowledge work has led to burnout. His suggested mantra will save us from our workaholic selves and cultures: “Do Fewer Things. Work at a Natural Pace. Obsess over Quality.” That’s the perfect summary of both Cade and Hepworth.
In the book, Newport features Jane Austen, who had to wait until she too got through a period of turbulence and lack of means, and was finally settled age 34 in a house on her brother’s estate with her mom and sister. There, in the 7 years before her early death, she wrote the majority of her magnificent novels. You need time and space to create. Not that many women have had either - yet.
Where’s your space?
It struck me how rare it is to see physical legacies of women’s art and work. These women’s creations are two promising indicators of what they might look like if there were more. But this week, the rising power of women artists was on display, with the release of Taylor Swift’s 15th album (immediately propelled to best-ever release on Spotify). Swift also entered FORBES billionaire’s list, and the next step of her tour features 8 (sic!) sold out nights at Wembley stadium in London. She’s only 34 years old, the same age that Jane Austen was when she finally got the time to create her long-lasting oeuvre. Swift’s legacy already seems solid. There’s an entire generation following her every song. And she’s not alone.
In my Tortoise daily Sensemaker, their Tay Tay focus was backed up by a whole phalanx of powerful female talent:
Listen already: Beyonce’s ground-breaking country album, Cowboy Carter which features Dolly Parton; Ariana Grande’s Eternal Sunshine and Shakira’s Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran.
And to come: Dua Lipa, who will headline Glastonbury for the first time, is releasing Radical Optimism on 3 May. Billie Eilish, who just won her second Oscar for an original song, releases Hit Me Hard And Soft on 17 May. Lana Del Rey, who headlines Coachella again this weekend, is releasing Lasso in September.
What’s more… Katie Perry, Selena Gomez, Megan Thee Stallion, SZA and Lady Gaga have all teased album releases for 2024.
We can now begin to admire what women can accomplish when they start strong. Watch them rise. Hear their song. Find your space. Then your voice.
But back to Cornwall… If ever you get there, throw in a stunning coast walk, and check out the hotel deals for a couple of nights + exceptional dinners at the trio of lovely hotels/ restaurants that make up the eatsleepdrink group. Inspiration + Q3 role modelling + a very contemporary hotel group with its pulse on the hunger for authenticity - in food, music and unpretentious charm. What more can a gal wish for?
@avivah a fabulous read on a Sunday morning! Yes to Cornwall! Yes to these music releases by talented female artists! And yes to Q3 focus & adventure!
Thanks @avivah for this tribute to 2 exceptionnal women really worth to know ! I have learned a lot reading your newsletter. And it makes me remind south Cornwall a fabulous region I discovered long time ago on the way to Scilly Islands…