The past week has been pretty manic in some respects, particularly because we have had builders working in the place. Also, in the background, there have been arrangements for travel which I am sure occupy a larger segment of one’s consciousness than they used to. At the same time, my art activities have come to fill my horizon to an unhealthy extent.
My attempts to learn to use egg tempera have come to have an obsessive character. The results have fallen short of what I hoped for, and it is clear that I have a long way to go …. unsurprisingly. Last night I decided that the piece on which I was working was absolutely going nowhere, and this morning I scraped it all back to the gesso surface, wrapped the board for future reference, washed the equipment and decided that I needed time in which to collect my wits, creatively speaking. So: today I have allowed myself to stop, spend some time reading, and allow my head to clear. Tonight, for the first time in ages, I will get together briefly with my colleagues in the Unit 9 group, to give a little thought to our future activities. (I have been astonished to think about how much time has passed since I actually put on some tidy clothes instead of studio scruffs.)
The next few days will compel a mental digression. We will be signing off the builders and starting to re-possess the space, taking rubbish to the local authority recycling centre, and spending a little time with family. I will have to stop living inside my own head, and begin to listen and look at the world again. No doubt my art (and my mental wellbeing) will be the better for it.