Time for a new project?

Of course this sounds silly but … this morning I opened an email offering an opportunity to get involved with a performance of Handel’s Messiah on the Choraline ‘Self-Isolation’ website. The Messiah! Nothing I’d like better, normally. My instant response today was, ‘I can’t possibly, I haven’t got time!’ Francis laughed ‘I suppose you’re still too busy putting the spice rack in alphabetical order!’

Okay, there would have been truth in that allegation a few weeks ago but now we’re a week into Staying at Home, I find myself absorbingly interested in a couple of book projects and quite unable to find time for anything else (other than the daily walk). One project’s personal and another is for a local history society — more about both these in the future. There is something extraordinarily peaceful about simply keeping out of the way of those others who are engaged in actual life-and-death activity. (Feeling full of gratitude and admiration for them, and sadness that this should be necessary.)

Claudia Myatt seems to be feeling the same: ‘I do very much enjoy the peace of my little corner of the river when my brain is engaged with creative stuff and there's no-one around. ‘ One of her projects is a drawing book. It’s going to be called ‘One Line at a Time’ and I hope Golden Duck will be publishing it in the autumn. Meanwhile, Claudia is planning to share some sample chapters — partly to gain feedback, partly to give other people a chance to break off from their spice rack rearrangements.

Do have a go — if you can find the time …https://claudiamyatt.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/one-line-at-a-time-chapter-1.pdf Here’s one of her drawings which seems to me to be an eloquent expression of artistic absorption and private peace.