Mel Moves to Margate | Catching up with Artist Mel Cole

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In 2013 I was lucky enough to buy Mel Cole's drawing, Boy with Snorkel, which sits above my desk and serves me well as the motif for this site. I was also lucky enough to meet the artist, and I caught up with her again last year following her move to Margate from London. I couldn't resist asking Mel, in her own words and photos, to document her life on the east coast.

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"I moved to Margate from Sarf London on 4th February 2017, the day after I got back from holiday. It’s not difficult for me to forget, it was slightly insane. I moved to get more physical and mental space to do my artwork and a cheaper way of life."

"Currently my paid work is at Cliffs, as a barista. Cliffs is a coffee shop, secondhand record shop and yoga studio. Toilets are top of the stairs to the left. Upstairs you will find more seating; more records, a children’s play area and Stirling hairdresser. Back downstairs is Curve, a coffee roaster (where we get our coffee). We also have a kitchen with the most amazing chef, Tomas ‘Margate Supper’ Eriksson, by the way."

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"It’s a great place to work, it has a nice community feel (when the twats don’t come in)."

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"By night I’m a yoga teacher, if you’re into it, I teach Vinyasa and like to get a bit spiritual with the Chakras, elements, Yamas and Niyamas. But in my head I’m mostly an artist. I fantasise about having more time to think, read and make artwork. The fantasy is becoming more real, I do have more time to produce work and think."

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"Nothing is ever static, todays reason that I  L O V E Margs is because of the people I have met, the physical and mental space that I have found."

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"Oh! and the sea..."

"I’m just sad that I don’t have the strength to swim in Walpole Bay tidal pool all year round. I love dipping into the water; it feels like I’m swimming into the earth's crust. Walpole Bay tidal pool is so vast I get a sense of perspective of how tiny we are on earth, and how minute we are in the universe."

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Follow Mel at @mel_cole or @melcoleyoga and find out more about her art here or in our previous feature. Her recent solo presentation Give A Suck featured at The Shop Front studio and project space in Cliftonville, Margate.

 

Words/Images © Mel Cole 2018. Photo of Mel Cole © Harri Bentley Photography 2018. All Rights Reserved.