ARTISTS BLOG 2021

VITAMIN C 

I have decided not to call the blog Lockdown 3, Isolation Artist, Lockdown 2021 or any other such depressing titles. I have been thinking about starting the blog again for the past week and couldn't focus my thoughts until today. A message I sent my friend this morning said that already every day had merged into one, just like a large grey fog. Then I realised that this was reflected in my paintings and I have been finding it extremely difficult to give the work any structure. As soon as the penny dropped I could begin to remedy it. There was the  same problem with the blog, as I found my mind jumping from one thing to another and unable to decide what to write about.

As I was painting this morning I was listening to a Band called Clean Cut Kid and their upbeat song Vitamin C -

"The sun don't rise like it's supposed to ....
I'm going to be your vitamin C, build you up like you used to be..."

So today's title is Vitamin C because I had to decide on something and it seemed very apt as I listened to the lyrics. This is how it feels at the moment -
"the sun don't rise like it's supposed to" and most of us are unsettled once again. For some it's a lot worse than others and listened to several depressed and disillusioned NHS workers on  radio 4 this morning which brings the sorry side of the story well and truly home. 

However, I remember writing the blog last summer and receiving many messages from people thanking me and saying they looked forward to reading it each day. So there won't be many too many sorry stories as the purpose of this is to tell some inspiring or funny stories. A lot has happened in my life since I last wrote here and much of it has been very painful and difficult but things don't stay like that forever. I have found myself having to constantly readapt and when the lockdown was announced I thought, "Ah yes, lets get a routine Julie, that's just what you need..."

Well things aren't that simple and it's quite cruel to inflict a rigid routine on someone like me so instead I've written out a list of things I could do during my day, which includes:

yoga, walk or gardening (exercise) 
painting or blog (mainly enjoyable work) 
writing magazine articles (grounding) 
cooking (depends on the mood) 
reading (I have so many books - mainly about art)
keeping in touch with friends (I'm feeling sad not to be seeing them)
clearing out (I have too much stuff and love clearing out)
looking at clothes on the internet or in magazines (I love clothes)
cleaning, washing and admin (unbelievably mind blowing, boring and generally thankless activities)
playing around with our new puppy Edie (more about Edie another day)
having a fire (I absolutely love fires)

If I achieve anything that's good, the other day I achieved nothing much apart from wandering around in yoga trousers pretending that I might do yoga at some point in the day (that wasn't a great day...)