#18 Starstuff Collection
August 03, 2025
Hello! I’m nearing the end of my 20-part series of newsletters describing how I got to be making Glass Cathedrals for the last 20 years (now, 21, please bear with me :)) !! Previous ones viewable here. And a special request – Let’s Chat! – at end of this newsletter…
This month I’m featuring my Starstuff collection, Glass Cathedrals I’ve been making since 2020, of some of the people who’ve influenced me over the years.
For better or worse, I am easily influenced. My mom worried I’d join a cult as a teenager, because I could get so caught up with other people’s words and ideas. And I did join, in my own way, a cult of two in the 1990’s, in a posh bit of London and was briefly derailed – but generally I’ve kept good company and chosen my influences well.
The name Starstuff comes from Carl Sagan (the planetary scientist): “The cosmos is within us. We are made of star-stuff” – a scientific fact and an existential revelation. Being part of the same star-stuff, we’re inextricably connected (and, in some cases, unapologetically sparkly!). No wonder we make such an impression on each other. And so it was a perfect title for the collection of brilliant & illuminating people who’ve shaped little old me.
Maria Popova Tentacular Writer (I looked it up, there is such a word)
Let me start with writer Maria Popova, seeing as I first read Sagan’s quote about Starstuff in one of her newsletters. Maria writes weekly reflections, The Marginalian, searching for “meaning across literature, science, art, philosophy, and the various other tentacles of human thought and feeling …”
Though Maria was quoting Carl, he was himself indebted to the work of Cecilia Payne (astronomer). So! – (in case you weren’t paying attention) –
The Cosmos revealed itself to
Cecelia who inspired
Carl who delighted
Maria who moved
me who shared with
YOU, lovely reader. Tentacles indeed!
My portrait of Maria was inspired by her photos of gravestones, three of them reading “White” “Black” and “Bird”. We’re all one in the dust. This Glass Cathedral sits above my kitchen sink. I like to be reminded.
(As a related aside, I’d like to recommend the Herman Charles Bosman short story Unto Dust where the bones of white and black are indivisible, buried below the African earth.)
Mary Oliver Luminous Poet
I only discovered the American poet Mary Oliver (1935-2019) in my 40s. How much more wonder the world must hold, that I know not yet of! I’ve found her poems very helpful and even after seeing them painted, slightly wrong, on the walls of hippy cafes around the world, my enthusiasm has not dulled.
One of my favourite poems is about sleeping in the forest at night. I recognise the liminal feeling she describes, between wakefulness and sleep, a blissful suspension when you’re part of everything and nothing. I get this feeling sometimes when napping in the afternoon, and almost always when camping.
This Mary Oliver poem inspired two Glass Cathedrals – A Luminous Doom with the 3D illuminated moon (swoon) and Sleeping in the Forest – which someone recently commissioned as a memorial to her sister who’d passed away. I will, from now on, see the poem through her eyes too. You can read the poem here. and buy the artworks here.
Beryl Markham African Adventurer
Of all the arts, I think literature has had the greatest conscious influence on my character. And books are the best portals to other lives, don’t you think? Beryl Markham (1902 – 1986) chronicled her many adventures in her brilliant memoir, West with the Night, published in 1942. I made a Glass Cathedral of her book as part of another project “The Traveling Bookbox Show”. I wish I had more pictures of it but here is one.
She was an aviatrix, author, adventurer, and the first PERSON to fly solo across the Atlantic from east to west. In 1936, she took off from Abingdon, UK and crash landed (successfully!) 20 hours later in Novia Scotia, Canada.
Her life was very very far removed from my ACTUAL aspirations, talents or disposition, and her era was rife with colonial suffering. But I still am entranced by dirty, risky, adventurous lives set against a world of glamor and intrigue (preferably backlit by an African sunrise).
Nell Gifford Creative Force
Maria Popova wrote “Greatness is consistency driven by a deep love of the work.” Many of the people who I find inspiring embody this attitude. Nell Gifford (1973 -2019) with whom I became friends at Oxford, was the founder of the extraordinary village-green Giffords Circus. She never let a lack of resources or precedent stop her manifesting her dreams, and she achieved greatness.
I remember going to see those first few seasons of her circus, costumes were made of sparkly scraps from the Minety dressing-up box, well-behaved geese and goofy dancing-girls made up for the lack of traditional circus performers. It was a dream come true and we all loved it.
She was a seriously successful person, but anyone who applies themselves with joy and vigour to their lives – be it their job, hobby, friends, passions, causes, well-being, family – is inspiring.
Jameela Jamil Actress Activist
Jameela Jamil calls out many of the cultural ‘norms’ that ill-serve most women (and men, less directly). I like her communication style, she is honest, funny, awkward, a bit brash, brave and compassionate. When she makes mistakes, she tries to learn from them and change. All this in the glare of the public eye, and while sporting an array of childhood-fantasy-level outfits with aplomb… Onward!
Tiu de Haan Life Muse
I lived with Tiu in the 1990s in a tiny flat on the Caledonian Rd. Our lives together were part comedy, part poetry, fun, fumbling and fabulous, all heart. I’ve made several portraits – from life drawings to Glass Cathedrals of / for Tiu over the years, showered in stardust, floating on an endless sea, bathed in moonlight.
Tiu has the most amazing job, she’s a self-made woman. Her ‘job title’ has proven elusive – celebrant comes close, illuminator is a bit of a mouthful I suppose. A life-muse? Her work is quite all-encompassing and yet also about the tiny detail of life, from helping individuals manifest plans and dreams, to being on elite teams who create alternative realities with world-changing missions. She’s just magic. www.tiudehaan.com
Let’s Chat!
For my next, penultimate newsletter of this 20 part series, I thought I’d answer questions you may have about my Glass Cathedrals experience. Please email me if you have any! Or just to say hi and let me know something about what Glass Cathedrals have meant to you. Don’t be shy!
Love Lisa