Art, folklore and ‘the deeper magic’ in Elementum journal

---

Grateful to Steve Watson of Stack Magazines for this fascinating interview

"You can't deny there's something bigger than us out there..."

'Jay Armstrong is the editor and creative director of Elementum, a beautiful biannual journal that draws upon the landscape and folklore of the British Isles and beyond to create a totally original sense of place. Filling her pages with stories about nature, identity and spirituality means she could easily cross over into politics and religion, but as she explains in this conversation, she actively avoids those subjects and instead prefers to plough her own furrow towards, "a crucible where academics, folklorists and artists can bring their own responses".

She's also a parent and speaks about the challenge of fitting the magazine around the rest of her life as well as the things she has learned along the way about the practicalities of publishing on a biannual schedule. I love it when a magazine finds an original way of viewing familiar material, and her "genre fluid" publishing does exactly that, crossing over conventional boundaries to bring a fresh and distinctive view of Britain's nature and history.'

Portrait: Sally Mitchell