The fog is beginning to lift.

About 2 weeks ago, I realised I was pretty depressed. I have been struggling to do even the basic things like get dress, wash or even going to get the shopping. Everything was an effort, why bother getting dressed when no-one would see me until Gordon came home. He eats and then promptly sleeps for an hour or so. Sometimes less. Sometimes more. Then he will do his thing for that night – gym, running, loading up podcasts . I get that, he has limited free time unlike me who has the whole day. Eventually he will settle down to watch a Netflix show with me , maybe watch the first 15 mins of the Late show with Jimmy Kimmel. Then its snack time for Angus and bed where we either read or if Gordon is really tired, sleep. If I am tired I will sleep after reading but more often or not, recently, I have got up and watched the serial of the week/month. At the moment it the French series ‘Spiral’. Then the day starts over again, exactly the same.

Why have I listed all the above. Because I have not felt in the least bit creative since before Christmas. I finished the Buddha painting and I immediately set up a still life. I looked at it and walked away from it for a month! Any way the realisation that I was in a deep depressive slump about 2 weeks ago, spurred me on as I know from experience that once I have that realisation, the only way out, is effort on my part.

To begin with, I started by revisiting the still life I had set up and making it the subject of the following project.

There is project ongoing on the Facebook Bath Academy of Art alumni page called the Matchbook Museum Project. Here are the rules

Maximum dimensions for submissions – 47 mm X 35 mm X 14 mm

Anyone can join in!

The curatorial criteria are only that contributors were students who attended Bath Academy of Art, and the work is the size of a matchbox.

There is no need for an actual matchbox, anything with those dimensions is fine.

All media are welcome, sculpture, ceramics, illustration, graphics (or visual communication as we used to call it), painting, fashion, textiles, printing, concrete poetry (remember John Furnival?), paper engineering, screen printing (remember John Vince?), photography, and the other medium I forgot.

First things first, make an approximate matchbox. Its tiny! Next is to work out how to make a piece this size. To start with, I will not be making a painting that is 1.85 X 1.38 X 0.55 inches, I don’t have the eyesight or skill to do that. So I will need to some how to make a bigger painting/drawing and fold it to size. So I tried out a few options and decided on some thick tissue paper, I think its rice paper but I bought it so long ago, I really don’t know. I know its strong and it took a coating of acrylic primer well. Now I am working on the painting but my concern is that when I fold it, the acrylic paint I am using, it will stick together. So I will need to work this out quickly as the clock is ticking and if it doesn’t work, I will need to go back to the drawing idea.

I have also decided to resurrect the idea of sketching. I have a fabric container box of slightly used or not used sketch books of all sizes and types. I do not need a new sketch book! I bought a new one for this project! It’s a Strathmore 400 series soft cover art journal. There was a mixed media option which would allow for some painting but at the moment, I am just working on trying to do a sketch a day. I am not quite there yet. In 9 days I have managed 6 quick sketches. To achieve what I want I have go outside. This is an ongoing problem as I get really anxious about going out, especially to draw. By the end of the year I hope I have conquered this fear.