My room in the London flat-share was small. Just enough for a child’s bunk bed, a desk, and a narrow corridor of space to stand. I was used to small spaces, though. Before this I had lived on a houseboat on the frozen canal. The luxury of central heating and a washing machine had not yet worn off.
The winter was grey and oppressive, far from the wide, open spaces and clear blue skies of my childhood. I kept reminding myself I did not move to London for the weather. I moved for the opportunities I thought were not at home.
I moved for the options.
Now my options were limited.
Trying to support myself as an art student without a loan. Eating rice and lentils more than I would care to admit. No money to go out. And with my coursework due I had set myself an overly ambitious project.
Every morning, after a cup of too-strong coffee I would commence my fervent Google searches: I had decided to make a linocut of 24 cities of the world, one for each letter of the alphabet.
The places I had visited meant something to me: Budapest, where I had fallen in love more than once; Florence, where I had almost drowned during a night-time swim in a river; Edinburgh, where I had danced until dawn and climbed up to Arthur’s Head to scream into the wind.
I continued with places I wanted to visit, travelling the world from the confinement of my bedroom. I carved out Istanbul, Havana, Dakar.
Q, U, X, W—Google helped with these: Quebec City, Ulan Bator, and Xalapa. I explored them using the Street View.
W was tricky.
Warsaw or Washington DC?
The coffee cut through the fatigue.
Windhoek.
The city in which I was born, where I spent the first sixteen years of my life. I had spent my teenage years dreaming of escaping it, thinking there was nothing there for me as an artist. The cultural scene was small. The endless blue skies were oppressive. I was a teenager with big dreams and ideas.
Now I let my mind wander back to the city streets to a simpler time before I had become plagued by the curse of endless options.
There is a water tower on one of the tallest hills in Windhoek. As kids we used to call it the “ice-cream cone”.
Looking out on the grey London rain, I sketched the conical shape and carved.
My mind wandered back to the taste of an ice-cream cone that can only be experienced on a hot and dry summer’s day in Windhoek: the only option I truly ever needed.
![](https://doeklitmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Athens-Summer-Du-Plessis.jpg)
![](https://doeklitmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Budapest-Summer-Du-Plessis.jpg)
![](https://doeklitmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Chittagong-Summer-Du-Plessis.jpg)
![](https://doeklitmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Dakar-Summer-Du-Plessis.jpg)
![](https://doeklitmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Edinburgh-Summer-Du-Plessis.jpg)
![](https://doeklitmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Florence-Summer-Du-Plessis.jpg)
![](https://doeklitmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Granada-Summer-Du-Plessis.jpg)
![](https://doeklitmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Havana-Summer-Du-Plessis.jpg)
![](https://doeklitmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Istanbul-Summer-Du-Plessis.jpg)
![](https://doeklitmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Jodphur-Summer-Du-Plessis.jpg)
![](https://doeklitmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Kathamndu-Summer-Du-Plessis.jpg)
![](https://doeklitmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Lisbon-Summer-Du-Plessis.jpg)
![](https://doeklitmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Mandalay-Summer-Du-Plessis.jpg)
![](https://doeklitmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/New-Orleans-Summer-Du-Plessis.jpg)
![](https://doeklitmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Olinda-Summer-Du-Plessis.jpg)
![](https://doeklitmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Paris-Summer-Du-Plessis.jpg)
![](https://doeklitmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Quebec-City-Summer-Du-Plessis.jpg)
![](https://doeklitmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Reykjavik-Summer-Du-Plessis.jpg)
![](https://doeklitmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/St-Petersberg-Summer-Du-Plessis.jpg)
![](https://doeklitmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Tangier-Summer-Du-Plessis.jpg)
![](https://doeklitmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Ulan-Bator-Summer-Du-Plessis.jpg)
![](https://doeklitmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Venice-Summer-Du-Plessis.jpg)
![](https://doeklitmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Windhoek-Summer-Du-Plessis.jpg)
![](https://doeklitmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Xalapa-Summer-Du-Plessis.jpg)
![](https://doeklitmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/York-Summer-Du-Plessis.jpg)
![](https://doeklitmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Zagreb-Summer-Du-Plessis.jpg)
Summer Du Plessis is an artist from Windhoek. She spent ten years in London and now lives and works in Berlin. She is interested in humour, surprise, elegance, and humanity.