About Me — Nicola Powys
Hi — I’m Nicola.
I was born in the northwest of the UK and I tell people who ask that I am from Manchester — it just gives me more kudos and is a lot simpler — and I do support Man U.
Sixty years later, France is my home.
I live, replete, in a small apartment near the Mediterranean Sea in which I swim every day before heading to my atelier in the middle of the Old Town. Here, I make art, write and put the world to rights with locals and tourists alike.
I live here with my husband of thirty-five years. He teaches Business and Economics, mostly online now, to put bread on the table.
Our daughter and two grandchildren live two hours away in Italy and our son is happily making a life for himself in Brazil.
Life is good, simple and low key but full of the essentials: friends, health and purpose.
It wasn’t always so idyllic of course. We are all victims of some trauma or other — those of us who seek answers. My own hasn’t gone away — I just manage it better now (feed me wine though and I could tell you stories, such stories!)
Yes — I made it through to the saner side. I listened to myself, I purged the toxins, I listened to others, followed my gut — leapt right in…
I nearly didn’t make it.
All the more reason to high five myself every morning and set off to work, dancing.
Previously, I have worn many hats — all of them sporting a big “ART” label.
I have been a glassblower in Edinburgh, an animator in London a teacher in Cambridge, a fitness instructor in Italy. I was a Creative Consultant for a Business School in France, founder of Artist studios in both Cambridge and France, professional artist exhibiting globally — and wife and mother exraordinaire (no one made better birthday cakes than I did!)
I love words and word play and am a fan of the absurd.
I know that I lived as a man back in the Middle Ages and that fact, along with the revelation that I won the Platinum Best Handwriting Competition in the 1970s, mean that I am never happier than when I can incorporate auld English into my handwritten missives (much to the bemusement of friends and family). Chaucerian English has much in common with French — the two languages having grown together throughout history and I love the way that my adopted language has a connection with the one I used in a former life.
I don’t want to sound smug or anything — believe me, the winged demons are always around when I shut my eyes — but I do want to speak with levity about my experience of coming out of the other side — to give a hopeful picture of possibility, especially now with everyone looking for a different way to be.
This is what I write about here on Medium (thanks so much for the opportunity!)
Prose poems. Snippets of my life now. Glimpses of how it can be — aware and knowing how to see — with a green slant, a tree-hugging slant — and an oblique guide to transitioning to a more meaningful future.
Find me at powysplays.medium.com
Art on Instagram: www.instagram.com/playspowys
website: www.powysplays.com
