Professional Appreciators: Sandy Sanchez
'I think that I've always had this desire to just document things and write them down'
Writing about everything from coffee tables to childhood bedrooms, Sanchez manages to cohesively discuss the everyday objects many of us don’t give much thought to, but she proves to us that we should.
I was fortunate enough to speak with her over Zoom, where we discussed her work as a writer, supporting local cinemas, and Severance’s Defiant Jazz.
Catherine Shuttleworth: You're a writer, a copywriter, a strategist, a jack of all trades. You also have your Substack Small Pleasures, which has over 7000 subscribers. So, I was wondering, what prompted you to start this newsletter in the first place?
Sandy Sanchez: I think with this newsletter, I mean, even before, starting this newsletter I've always loved writing my entire life. I've been a very avid journaler ever since I was, like five years old. So I think that I've always had this desire to just document things and write them down.
For a lot of my life I just kind of kept it to myself, just through journals and private Tumblr blogs. But I think that probably 2018/2019 is when I started sharing more things online.
I find it very joyful to just share what I like, what I'm eating, what I'm reading. So I think just that desire to sort of share and take things away from my journals, but also share it online with people, that was the biggest reason why I wanted to write. Just because I write for work every day doesn’t take away from the fact that I wanted to write for leisure too, and share that. I just think it's fun.
There was a book that I found in 2018 called Small Pleasures, and it was by the School of Life, and it was this book that had 52 small pleasures, and this person was just documenting a little moment they really enjoyed. And I was like, ‘Oh my God, this really resonates with me’. And that's what the name was inspired by.
But I think overall, I really just wanted to write because I love sharing with others, and I think it's really fun. The type of community that you can build when you do share your writing, you come across so many incredible people, and I think that's been a really fun part of it, too.
CS: I love the name Small Pleasures, I feel like it really encapsulates your writing style and what you write about. So thank you so much for sharing.
A lot of your writing within your Substack, and also the work that you produce outside of it for other publications, focuses a lot on the interior, spaces, objects. These are things that dominate our everyday lives, but I actually don't think a lot of attention is given to writing about them. So what drew you to centring your work around these topics?
SS: I think that's a good question. I think really I was just thinking about what am I genuinely interested in and serious about? Because I think that with writing sometimes, at least for me, I find that I just want to write about the things that I could spend hours researching and the things that I am always obsessing over.
I was actually thinking about this question too, and I kind of took a look at my interests and realised they are not much different than when I was a kid. I'm thinking back to when I was a kid and what I was interested in doing for fun, and I remember I have always been really into interiors. I remember drawing fake blueprints for fun when I was little, and I would draw out fashion design illustrations, and I would write these fake stories, or fan fiction stories, like random characters from movies that I would see. So, when I look back, it's like, ‘Oh my God. When I was young, I was really into interiors and in fashion, and I really loved reading, and not much has changed for me now versus when I was eight.’
And then I guess, bringing it back to writing about interiors and style. I think that the reason why I also got really into it is because ever since I was young, I really couldn't wait until the day where I could put together my own space. I would just spend hours on Tumblr reblogging different room inspirations. At the time it was all bedrooms with twinkle lights, that type of vibe, and I remember thinking, ‘I can't wait until I can put together my own space.’
I have always been very into thrifting, and vintage shopping. When I moved out and went to college, that's when I started thinking about how to decorate my space. So I would go to the thrift store and I would get little objects, and vintage posters, and just decorative items that I would fill my space with. I've kind of carried that throughout the last, I don't even know how many years, like, the last 10 years, just slowly finding my interior style.
So naturally I just have this desire to write about it, and it's something that I could talk about for hours. I love books, I collect a lot of books on art and design, and those books are also always inspiring me. I also am inspired by traveling. If I travel somewhere, I'm going to be looking at the buildings and the interiors of restaurants, hotels, really everything. So it just kind of consumes me in a great way. I just love thinking about it and writing about it, and my writing just kind of went in that direction of talking about these things through the lens of those small pleasures. Just the joy that you feel when you are in these spaces.
CS: No, definitely. I think when I was writing the questions, and I was going through your work, your piece about little objects and just kind of having them for the joy of it, really resonated. I have this little ceramic swan that I got in an independent market, and I kept going back and forth before I purchased it, because I thought, 'Oh, there's no inherent need for this’. But eventually I thought, ‘No, this is so cute, and I love it’. It’s just like you said, the joy of having these parts of yourself shown through these objects we display.
SS: Exactly, there's so many stories behind these objects, or you create stories for them once they enter your home. They just become part of the bigger picture.
CS: Exactly, I find it so interesting.
In 2022 you also wrote a piece for Architectural Digest about the colour pink in Latin America. It was such an interesting piece to read, so well constructed. So I was interested to know what drew you to exploring that cultural tradition in architecture?
SS: I love colour. I'm very fascinated by colour and just how colour shows up in architecture and interiors.
My parents are from El Salvador, so growing up we would go to El Salvador a lot, and I just remember being really intrigued by all the houses there, because they would be the craziest colours.
There’s one pink checkered house in my parents hometown, it's two shades of pink, and it's checkered, and then next to it is an orange house with bright trimming, and then a neon green house. I thought it was really interesting that these houses were so colourful, because I think that in the US, and maybe a lot of other countries too, there's so much grey and beige in our architecture.
I just remember thinking, ‘Why? Why is our house such a beige colour? Why is there no colour?’ So I've always been drawn to the concept of colour and how it shows up.
Then a few years ago I spent a few months in Mexico, and Mexico is also very, very colourful, there's just so much colour everywhere. At the time I was also learning a lot about Luis Barragán, because the way that he approaches interiors, there's a lot of colour there, a lot of pink that shows up.
Whilst I was there, I ended up just connecting with different Mexican designers and Mexican architects, and they just had such an interesting perspective. So that's kind of how the story came to be, it was just something that had been on my mind that I wanted to dive deeper into. I wanted to talk to these designers and architects and get their professional expertise, because in my mind, I thought, ‘Is Latin American architecture colourful just for the sake of it, or is there more historical or cultural context that I just don't know?’ So it was fun writing that piece because I was able to talk to these people and do my own digging, reading through different archives and PDFs trying to find this information.
I think that there's a lot of reason why some cultures are just extremely colourful and very expressive. For some places, it's also logistic. I remember I asked my aunt, who lives in El Salvador, and she said it's really easy, especially back then, when there was no phones or Google Maps, to get directions by being able to say, ‘Oh yeah, I live in the green house up the road.’ So I think that it was a mix of cultural and expressive reasons, but also, more technical reasons.
CS: That’s so interesting. In the UK, grey houses are truly an epidemic. You see people buy these gorgeous historic houses and just knock them down, and replace it with three shades of grey.
SS: Oh, it's so sad. I ask myself this question a lot too of ‘what is happening to these architectures?’ I think it comes down to, one, a lot of people maybe don't have the expertise in that sort of craftsmanship of designing these really intricate interiors. Then two, I also think that it's just not being funded, because it's a lot easier for cities to build these buildings with cheaper materials. They're cranking them out a lot faster, so there's less of a focus on the details.
CS: It’s definitely something really interesting to think about and explore, almost a lost art.
For Small Pleasures, you also wrote about films. You've written, actually, quite bit about films, but you wrote one about great films and re-watching them. You mentioned The Phantom Thread, and It's a Wonderful Life, which I love so much, but I was wondering how your favourite art has informed, both your work as a writer, but also just you as a person?
SS: I just feel like it's at the root of everything, the type of art and films and books and music that I listen to, for me, I find inspiration from all of these.
Going back to films I've made it a priority to watch more movies the last few years, because growing up I didn't watch too many movies. When I became an adult, people would be like, ‘Oh, you haven't seen that movie?!’ I have so many movies that I need to catch up on. So the last few years have been dedicated to watching more movies, going to the movie theatre more and making that a priority.
And I've found that going to the movies more has just been so good for my creative inspiration. There's nothing that watching a good movie at the movie theatre can't fix, I'm always going to feel better after that. I'm always gonna feel inspired by it, even if it's a movie that's maybe not super directly correlated to what I do in my work, there's gonna be something there that is going to uplift me and make me curious. So, yeah, everything that I consume is an important part of the work, and I think it inspires me indirectly, sometimes directly, but I think that it's important to always be watching different types of films.
I'm trying to do a mix of catching up on older movies, but also catching up on maybe movies from the last like 10 to five years that I haven't seen. So that mix of old and new has been a priority for me. That's kind of how I see it, art and film sort of play into what I do.
Something that I really enjoyed from watching a lot of these older movies, that I do think maybe directly impacts what I write about, is the interiors.
A lot of these movies I'm obsessed with the set design and the way that a lot of these places would furnish their homes. I've entered so many rabbit holes after watching a movie where I'm like, ‘Oh my god, I love that lamp’ or, ‘I really like how they style that chair’.
Even colour, I think it's really interesting how different directors and cinematographers capture colour. Everyone has their own approach to how they make their movies. But, yeah, that's something that I've been finding really fun.
And the attention span thing is so real. I saw a movie last fall that was four hours long, and I had to break it up in like two days because it was so long. But, yeah, we consume so much short form, it's like, ‘Oh, I have to see this in two times speed, because I can't even watch a 30 second video at normal speed’.
It's just so crazy to think about. So I think it is really important to slow down. I think getting memberships to movie theatres is also really important, because I've noticed that has made a difference for me. I became a member at a theatre nearby, and I think it just feels really special to be a member and get your discounted movie ticket and your discounted popcorn, and just make it like a ritual to go see a new movie every month.
CS: It's just nice to support local cinema as well. It's just so important. I love it.
I took my friend when the Bob Dylan film came out and it was just so nice, because then afterwards we couldn't stop talking about this film that we'd gone to see together. It's just so joyful.
SS: I did see that movie too. It was really great. Last month I caught up on Anora.
I remember Sean Baker in his Oscar acceptance speech saying, ‘Please support independent theatre. Please go watch movies’. So I was like, ‘Okay, I’m doing my part!’
CS: Another question that I sort ask everyone is, if you could share a recent piece of art, whether it's film, book, physical art, music, that you’ve consumed, and your thoughts on it?
SS: Last weekend I went to The Met and I went to go see this German Romanticist artist. Maybe you've heard of him, because I feel like a lot of people knew him, but for some reason, I don't think I did, his name is Caspar David Friedrich.
He does these romantic landscapes. And he has one painting that he's really known for called Wanderer above the Sea of the Fog - did you watch Severance?
CS: Yes!
SS: Well you know how there’s a scene in Severance where they show a painting of Kier, where he’s standing above the mountains, and he’s looking out? That scene is very inspired by this painting.
But I really liked the exhibit because, I don't know, they all felt very beautiful. They had these tones of blues and greys, and the landscapes felt very pensive. I think the theme of a lot of these paintings, especially that painting, was the theme of self reflection and discovering new places and new lands. So that was the last piece of art that I consumed.
I really enjoyed it and I hadn’t heard about him before and I didn’t know much about that specific era of art, and it was really great, I loved it!
I have also been listening to the ODESZA Severance eight hour mix just for me to work to. I’ve been listening to it so much the past two months, now I miss Severance so much!
CS: I miss Severance so much too, I sobbed like a baby at the finale. I was telling my girlfriend, ‘I would never leave you on the other side of the door! I would open the door!’
SS: It’s such a good show! I’ve been meaning to rewatch season one, I just need to experience it again.
I cry a lot in movies and at art and television too, anytime that I’m consuming something beautiful I feel very deeply and I just crying and I felt the same way with Severance.
CS: Moving onto our final question, could you share your top five records to listen to whilst browsing for little trinkets and objects at antique fairs and markets?
SS: This question was really hard!
Even now I’m still debating what I’m going to tell you because I feel like there’s an album that I’m missing.
The ones that first came to mind - although sometimes they flip around, I tend to be a person where I’ll find one album and get really obsessed with it and just replay it for two months and then revisit it again a year later - but the first one that came to mind is ten days by Fred Again. I’ve been enjoying that one a lot, I really enjoyed it last summer and I’ve been listening to it again.
Another album that I really love, well actually all of Khruangbin’s albums! I love the instrumentals, I find them relaxing. Anytime I don’t know what to play, I’ll play Khruangbin, and it’s always exactly what I’m looking for and exactly what I’ll need.
I also really like the album Fantasy by M83 that came out a couple of years ago, I associate that one with really good memories because at the time I was in Florence for a few months and I associate that period of time with that album. I love revisiting it.
Another one is Bad Bunny’s DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS. Whenever I need to feel energised or get ready in the morning I just really love that album.
I think thats four right? I want to give you a few more!
I also really like the album - there’s this French pop group L’Impératrice - I love one of their albums called Matahari and that one is such a feel good album that I always come back to, I love it.
I kinda wanna say one more?
CS: Of course you can!
SS: Its not a specific album but I really love Claude Debussy, any type of classical music I love to listen to when I’m shopping or when I’m writing. I might just expand this to any instrumental music.
This question actually made me go into a deep dive because my Spotify Daylists have been really great lately, they’ll curate these jazzy, electronic, type of instrumentals. And there’s this one song I’ve been really loving called Pool of Love by Les Baxter. He was a composer in the 50s and 60s and his genre of music is called ‘easy listening music’ which is really similar to lounge music, but easy listening is meant to be enjoyed and listened to, whereas lounge music is just meant to be in the background.
I don’t know, that type of music I just really love!
So I think that’s my answer, oh and of course Defiant Jazz. The Defiant Jazz playlist on Apple Music I listen to all the time.
I feel like I kind of went all over the place!
Be sure to follow Sandy Sanchez on Instagram, TikTok, and subscribe to her Substack.
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Great interview with a fascinating individual 🙂
Thank you for having me Catherine!!! Enjoyed our conversation so much :’)