It is perhaps surprising to discover the extent to which the recent technical glitch relating to my web-site threw me off balance. In retrospect I have to acknowledge that the world was not on the verge of coming to an end, but I was in a right old state. Isn’t it interesting to realise the extent to which electronic communication has, quite surreptitiously, crept up on us to become a central part off what we take for granted as “normal”?
When I think about it, my art work was not affected in any way by the problem. Currently I am working on another idea for a piece using egg tempera, and this has absorbed my energies for several days. It has reached that stage at which I spend hours sitting and looking at it, wondering whether or not it is actually finished. (We’ve been there before!) I have found the process to be completely absorbing, and totally unrelated to whether or not I could get on line.
My wife, who takes a rather more balanced view of things, pointed out that I have encountered this problem before, and it actually corrects itself after a couple of days without any intervention on my part. That is how it turned out on this occasion. So why the hair-tearing and foaming at the mouth? I think that it might have to do with the feeling of a loss of control. But “control” over what? After all, I’m an artist, not some kind of social media freak.