"Her calm and inviting demeanour provided such a safe environment for me to open up."
So I'd like for you to open up too...
This time last year, a funny thing happened. A number of people — strangers, acquaintances and friends alike — began to tell me that I should ‘write more’.
The only writing I did was on Instagram, which I was using as a platform for my artwork. I kept hearing over and over that my rushed captions had made people pause and reflect on their lives, which was never my intention.
I was pleasantly surprised by the comments, but I had no illusions about becoming a writer. Any talent I may have, I told myself, was purely in the realm of aesthetics. However, the idea hung about me, slowly unfurling and taking me further into its grip, until eventually I gave in and began this newsletter, last October.
Since then, this space has grown into a community of hundreds (not quite thousands yet, but we’re getting there!). Every week, I sit behind my screen, doing my best to tap into something you might want to read, and let it spill it out across the internet, from my keyboard to your inbox.
I decided to start this get-to-know-you thread, as over the last few weeks I’ve gained a couple of hundred new subscribers and we know very little about each other. For those of you not on Substack, you can click on the email header to open it, where you can comment and join the chat. Or if you prefer, you can just respond to me via email.
If you’re not sure where to start:
Where in the world are you reading this from?
If you could be anywhere, where would it be and why?
If we were to meet for a coffee, what would you like to chat about?
You can find my answers to the questions below, but first I’d like to share this lovely testimonial I received from a client last week:
“Working with Tamzin has been a game-changer for me, both personally and professionally. Her calm and inviting demeanour provided such a safe environment for me to open up. Whatever my expectations were, she exceeded them. My portrait is everything I hoped it would be and more, and there were so many small details in it that resonated with me, details that I'd never even told her about. Her intuitive abilities shone through not only in her artwork, but in her mentoring conversations with me, so many of her interpretations of what I was going through resulted in a light-bulb moment. Tamzin is a first-class artist through and through.
The one-on-one sessions were incredible. Right after our calls I felt an increased sense of clarity and awareness, but also in the days that followed and even now — I'm still putting the pieces together of a lot of things we talked through. Working with her gave me the space to just fully be who I was and I felt so accepted and seen. I'm more confident in who I am overall.
My portrait is so joyful. Like, that's ME! It also makes me want to laugh — I look at it and I think it's so funny how much time and energy I spent feeling insecure when I really didn't need to.” Sofia.
So, where am I?
I’m writing this from a café in Graz, the city I moved to just over two years ago. I never would have chosen to come here, but now I know that there was a much bigger reason for my move to Austria — it has even reinforced my belief in meant-to-be.
Where would I like to be?
Sometimes where I most want to be is right here in the life I’ve built. Other times, I’d like to be sitting on top of a sand dune near Merzouga, watching the sunrise, or watching the sunset with friends that I haven’t hugged in far too long, somewhere along the Arno in Florence. Or, floating on a paddle-board on a calm sea, feeling the sun on my skin and the cool water as I dip my toes in the water.
When I really dig deep into where I want to be, it comes down to visiting and reconnecting with loved ones in far corners of the world.
If we met for a coffee, what would I want to chat about?
My whole raison d’être is to connect with others on a very deep level, as that’s where shifts can occur. I don’t do small-talk, so we’d dive straight into the nitty-gritty.
Now, it’s your turn…
1. I'm reading this in Greenwich Village New York.
2. I miss my Irish woodland, whenever I'm away, but it's good to be away to appreciate what we have.
3. If we had coffee, I'd like to talk about what you say about the life you've built. The lives we build for ourselves, the how, the when, the why, seems to me like an interesting kick-off for a good chat over coffee. Love the artwork, btw.
I'm in Minneapolis, in a home I've lived in since 1995. My wife and I have had lots of improvements done over the years so it is a home we love. We also love having people over for dinner and brunches especially in the summer when we can sit out on the patio in the garden.
We plan on moving to Europe when we retire. Right now, I would love to be in the Cinque Terre area of Italy.
If we met for coffee we could talk about all sorts of random interesting things, like New York during the gilded age, women in history, what kind of fiction we like, food and cooking, are we the only planet with life, what was there before the big bang. I can ramble on about gardening but have gotten better at telling when people aren't interested. I became a volunteer master gardener so I didn't bore my wife too much!