June 28th we will be celebrating one year of our FF journey so we want this months theme to be about Courage and Community. We have a FFabulous FFeature FFive and we cannot wait to hear their story. Get your tickets via billetto https://billetto.co.uk/e/featured-15-tickets-287901
Liz Atkin's internationally acclaimed visual artist and advocate based in London. Compulsive Skin Picking dominated her life for more than 20 years, but art has become her greatest tool for recovery. Liz reimagines the body-focused repetitive behaviour of skin picking into photographic artworks, charcoal drawings and performances. She has given public talks for TEDx, Wellcome Collection and at a range of conferences and health events around the world. Her artwork and advocacy has featured on BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour, Metro, Huffington Post, Women’s Health USA, i, Mashable, BBC World Service, Rethink Mental Illness and more. She’s known for her free #CompulsiveCharcoal drawings created on newspapers on public transport and gifted to passengers, she’s given away 15,000 drawings so far.
Liz received the Unstoppable Spirit Award for Outspoken Advocacy at the Global Conference for Skin Picking and Hair Pulling Disorders in San Francisco in April 2018.
Tell us about yourself, what you do and where you are from
My name is Ricky Nuttall. I'm 37 and a London's Firefighters. I work at a specialist rescues station and as such my role and skill set is very broad.
So we kind of stalked you a bit - as we do with most of our Featured and Fifteen features! What was your initial thoughts to our project and why did you agree to be involved? I think the idea behind this project is amazing. Who wouldn't want to be a part of it? Bringing the community together and helping to promote peoples selfless and or innovative projects is worth it's weight in gold.
Our theme for June is courage and community, tell us briefly how this is relateable to you - Obviously I serve the community daily and I guess I'm brave when it's called for so I would say that I fit in well!
Your medium for personal expression is writing and the spoken word - tell us a little bit about how important this medium is to you and why I have always used writing as a form of self expression and self counsel. I have had my share of difficult times and writing has always helped me to make sense of my feelings and process what is going on around me. Occasionally my words have also been of help to others as well!!!
In the last year what would you say you have learnt most about yourself? Throughout the last year I have learned that it doesn't matter how strong you believe you are or how much support you have around you, we all have our breaking points. I found mine. I also found the strength to ask for help and let others pick up the strain for me temporarily whilst I found my feet again. I am now empowered by knowing the true value of human resolve and my personally ability to self heal.
This year has been a reflective period for you, If you could pass on any advice to anyone what would that be? Simple. Never be too proud or too blind to ask for and accept help when you need it. True strength lies in humility.
What’s next for 2018? 2018 brings with it the breakdown of my 8 year relationship. So this year will be about finding my path as a 37yr old single man and a continued effort to develop myself further at work. On top of that I have a few Grenfell related projects in the pipeline so you may see my face on tv again at some point soon!!!
What makes London ‘local’ for you? This could be a favourite London spot - Any old building and central London specifically. London is steeped in history and it's a history that is easy discover amongst the plethora of coffee shops and modern businesses.....you just have to look :)
12 International Film Awards ‘best mobile film’ Cassius Rayner learnt his trade by being an apprentice to a camera crew over 20 years ago. He became a camera operator for news, music videos and documentaries. Cassius then worked as a camera operator for UNOPS (United Nations) filming in extreme situations. Over the years he has directed and camera operated for various networks and independent film companies.
In recent years Cassius has dedicated a lot of his time to supporting and mentoring disadvantaged and marginalized young people in film/video production. For the last 4 years he has been exploring and filming using smartphone technology as a new art form and platform and all his content is now only shot using mobiles. It’s given him a new found freedom to be more creative in his approach to his work and to his clients.
We are really excited about the opportunity to work with Cassius in producing a mobile film of Featured in Fifteen and promoting other small local businesses to work directly with Cassius.
Cassius has just launched his knife crime competition spoken word campaign to help channel young peoples imagination and give them the chance to create their content into a film to help raise knife crime awareness:
https://www.gofilmit.tv/spoken-word-comp
See Cassius's other work here: www.gofilmit.tv
Cassius is also launching a new youth network URBAN REACH TV, celebrating young talent in the creative industries, a place to showcase work, a place to find opporutnities, training and inspiration. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKwyCpYkHfg
Tell us a bit about yourself - I’m a London lad with a few melodic stories to tell; Avid F.R.I.E.N.D.S watcher, veggie enthusiast and lover of classic soul/folk records. If Joni Mitchell and Donny Hathaway we in a studio session together, I’d be the inspired apprentice in the corner soaking in and making my own version that collaboration. I mean imagine being a fly wall when they’re recording!
Tell us a little bit about what's driving your creativity - When was the last time you turned on the radio and went “ahhhhh yes” smiled from ear to ear and sung at the top of your lungs?
Emotionally and mentally I’ve taken so much from music over the years; the love, fear, heartbreak and joy from various songs have guided me through some of the best and worst times, giving some of that back to music lovers drives my whole purpose for sharing. Oh that and the Mrs yanking my arm about going for it...... help
Who is your music for? I’d say my music is for anyone that wants a dose of undiluted warming positive energy; it’s story telling meets chilled afternoons for soul lovers, folk lovers and love lovers.
On this EP, I’m touching on hope, optimism, caution and love. I’ve described those tiny little tingles one would get when thinking over the specifics of forever.
What do you love most about your music? “A Decade’s Grace” is the most vocal I’ve ever been about the relationships in my life, sometimes I feel very vulnerable when exposing such private things, but I love that the delivery is greeted with such a pleasant response from listeners, it’s almost like that sweet spot where you get lost in an audio storybook; imagining yourself right there, it’s priceless and so comforting.
What is the biggest lesson you have learned since starting your passion? My mate, and one of the producers on this ep Aylwin Steele summed it all up and I couldn’t have put it better myself.
A small phrase he always says “Little and often does it”. So celebrating the small wins and having patience when chipping away at a goal is what keeps me sane.
Life has a way of clouding the joy of creativity, so its our responsibility as the “creatives” to maintain clarity of our vision.
You may loose sight but never loose your vision.
What’s next for 2018? 2018 is gonna see new open and honest music, new videos and some fun & interesting gigs.
This is my second release so it’s “nerve central” but I’ve really enjoyed the whole process of growth between 2016-2018 so looking ahead with such optimism feels great. We’re currently pencilling dates for a local tour.
What makes London 'Local' for you? i.e this could be a favourite London - I mean.... apart from our beloved underground, the thing that makes London “Local” for me is a little spot in Putney just off the common not far from where I live; it’s called “The Spencer” and it blimmin’ well rocks.
It’s right opposite a huge open green space, they serve great food there and have the nicest locals. Best time to go is Mid Spring/ Early Summer. I’d very much like to put on a mini concert there, just may include it in the upcoming tour.
Ever progressing, Riccy is set for his sophomore release entitled ‘A Decades Grace’ early 2018
Find out more: www.riccymitchell.com
South Space Records are a group of young electronic producers and visuals artists based in South East London. Founded in 2015 and managed by Stanley Sorrell, alongside Creative Director Finbar Kelly, the group have gone on to sell out shows, feature in official Spotify playlists and host their own radio shows on FM radio. They work hard on bringing new and innovative ideas to their music, events, fashion and visuals. South Space are interested in broadening the horizons for what's possible to do as an 18/19 year old in the industry, taking a multidisciplinary approach wherever possible and providing a platform for emerging young artists.
Their energy and dynamism to create events that are creatively considered on every level possible (they have a SS member of the collective that has produced a South Space scent that is pumped into the event area, providing a full on brand sensory experience) is just incredible and mind blowing at where their skills take them.
These awesome individuals are not only courageously breaking the mould on the convention of creativity and how you ‘get there’ but they are 100% committed to their collective of young and passionate creatives and all willing to learn and progress together from the ground up.
Find out more at: www.southspacerecords.com
Briefly tell us about your passion and when it started
We are a comedy double act who perform live shows around the country, and also host a hit podcast. We met at a stand-up gig five years ago, and discovered we have loads in common - we are both comedians, we live in SE23, we have boys who were born 11 days apart, with the help of the same midwife! And we have a similar attitude to parenting - we love being mums, but parenting is hard sometimes, and often the best way to cope with the tough bits is to have a laugh about them.
In the past year since featuring with us what would you say has been your FFondest memory in terms of personal growth or project growth? We have had loads of fun touring around and meeting people from all over the country. There have been so many road trips, fab gigs, big laughs, and late night curries. Probably our favourite moment from this year's shows was TV's Dr Ranj joining us on stage to take part in the Nappy Change Challenge...
What do you love most about your creative passion? We are big show-offs so of course we love the attention and making people laugh. But also it really means a lot to us when women get in touch to say our stuff resonates with them, and makes them feel less alone, or just gives them a good time.
What is the biggest lesson you have learned since starting your passion? It's OK to keep doing something just because you enjoy it, rather than worrying too much about where it's going, what everyone else is doing, or whether it's worth the effort beyond the joy it brings you.
If you could do it all again what would you change? Or what would you want to encourage more of? We don't really have any regrets, to be honest! Of course there have been setbacks and mistakes, but they were all part of the journey, and we wouldn't be where we are without them.
What’s next for 2018? We are still doing loads of touring and booking some very exciting guests for the podcast. In April we are going on a trip to Nepal with the charity Practical Action, which we're really looking forward to.
What’s your favourite thing to do locally? We love food and eating out, so we like popping to local restaurants like Mama Dough, Yamamomo, Meat Liquor, etc.
Is there a person locally that inspires you to think differently or left a lasting impression on you? Can we count each other? We have seen each other in our underwear many times, and that's a pretty lasting impression.
If you could pass on advice to anyone breaking the mould on the norm be it changing their career or embracing a different way of working what advice would you give them? Be passionate and do what you love. Don't worry about what anyone else is doing, or what you "should" be doing. Don't undersell yourself. And hustle!
Do you have a FFact about your passion that you can share? The Scummy Mummies Podcast has listeners in over 100 countries. Hello Botswana!
Keep up to date with the scummy mummies via: @scummymummies