Mel Moves to Margate | Catching up with Artist Mel Cole

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.

"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."

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

"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."

"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."

"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."

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.