Episode 5 - Nic Cartier Part 2

At long last here is part 2 of my interview with Nic.  Part 1 finished with us discussing how to learn a new tool and this episode starts off with Nic’s advice on how to learn a new style.  Thanks for patiently waiting for each episode. I am trying to get them out regularly and often but it’s hard with a full-time job and my henna work.  I finished editing part 1 right before my trip to Australia so you would have something to tide you over, and then as soon as I returned I started editing part 2.

Antoinette’s x-wing fighter belly!

All my listeners have been really kind with compliments and also with constructive criticism; the latter has been really important because you all alerted me to some technical issues which allowed me to fix them for future episodes. I recently received a really wonderful email from a listener in the Seattle area, Anoinette Hippe, who said that I could post her message wherever I wanted.  I was so happy to receive this message because what she describes feeling while listening to the podcast is exactly what I had intended. I am so gratified that, at the very least, one person got it!  Here is her message (and also a photo of the design of hers I mention in this episode.):

Dear Lisa,

My journey with henna has been a long and generally convoluted one (whose isn’t?) but one thing that has remained a constant is my general underlying desire to make henna more meaningful, both to me and my clients.

When I first started henna, I was given Loretta Roome’s book to read, and my favorite chapter was the one at the back, the one that talks about what it means to be a henna artist. Throughout the years, first as a student of a woman to whom henna is simply a means to support herself and her family, then as my drive to make this art form a viable source of income for myself, I would find myself pulled from the “meaning” of what it means to be a henna artist. When I would sense my disconnect, my lack of interest in doing one more stupid design, I would pull out that book and read the last chapter. And then wonderful things would happen in my soul, and I would want to be…”more.”

Tonight as I was driving home, I had a full hour to listen to the most recent podcast. It was hard, sometimes, to listen, because it was dark, and the tears that pricked at the back of my eyes threatened to blur my vision dangerously. I realized, while listening to Noam talk about his amazing experience in that Toronto festival, and again when he described his role as a ritual organizer, that I had found in audio form another source of inspiration, much like Roome’s book, to go to when I am feeling my least connected to my art form, to re-charge my “good juju” and to become “more.”

Thank you so much for what you are giving to the community with these podcasts. The “storyteller” is a vital role human history, and with so much competition (TV, music, etc) in modern life, it is refreshing to find exactly what we need in something so basic as sitting around a cup of tea and talking. That we are allowed to listen in is a real gift.

I thank you with all my heart,

Antoinette