...so, done lots but non art. Moving furniture and books in the study where a window is going to be positioned shorty; and done my back in. Accordingly, started work on taxes; rendered fairly straightforward due to lack of income :) Surprisingly large royalties though.
Think the book illustrations are done - sent off a bundle, have to wait for comments and (hopefully) approval now.
Next trick is taxes. Family go tomorrow, if I can find and adapt last years taxes then I'm free to hit the easel on Monday.
Though I might take a day out somewhere. Would like to test energy after stent fitting but new drug regime something of a hurdle; made it to the riverbank today, exhausted! Guessing it takes time.
Considering that in 5 years and 3 months I will be 80, there's not that much left...
Got seven - seven!!- drawings done yesterday, by simply refusing to do anything else. Marvellous. Life goes easily on without my fussing.
Got the dentist this morning but plan a couple more before I must go. Maybe work this afternoon too .
Got six drawings off yesterday, despite an excess of chronofarge (new fave word, distress caused by computer bollix) Ronan, excellent local fixer, rebuilt one computer by hard drive and firefox, and we were forced to buy a new printer since the one that broke under guarantee has to go somewhere to be tested. I'm working now, having passed 2 deadlines.
And guests arrive! Lucky I'm so well.
Back from hospital, alive and actually well. Though battered and bruised... all that will clear up. Rather a sad time, I was in a room alone so no interesting people to talk to. And my nurse, sweetheart in many ways, took the piss out of my accent. Plus as usual (it seems) problems with paperwork and taxis.
Felt the difference immediately, it was like a knot undoing in my chest. though this is probably a fantasy. I do feel very fit - though washed over with fits of sleepiness.
Wrote a review of Hughs book which needs deciphering from my notebook and typing up... pleased to have accomplished something.
Another in the Hommage a Kitaj series, charting the decline and fall... back to the hospital on Weds., not looking forward to it. But I'm assured by well-meaning friends that the acute burning wont be so intense since the abscess on the sinus has gone.
Finished the Irene singing a Healing Song to a Flamingo so if I survive there's only the Ascent of the Blessed to come back too. Got another months' extension on the maths book!! Which l really must get on with ASAP -
Curious that the hands in both pictures are in the same position, nearly
Still lingering. Did the hospital - working on a pic of that - mouth/tooth infection so they couldn't fit the stents. Battered and bruised. Not happy in general. But today managed to waylay my dentist and get an appointment for Thursday so maybe this can get sorted.
Matts gone and I'm bereft.
Should start on book, deadline looming, but want to finish a couple of pix and focusing is hard, I'm tiered. One artery has 50%effacity, another has lost 75%. That explains the constant knackerness then.
Off for a kip...
And the rest. My dossier is vast, in French and needs all sorts of responses. And shaving, for gods sake. Will have to sit and draft a timetable today.
Bob off to the UK on Tuesday where he's seeing many of his specialists and we discover our future. Neither of us wants to return to the UK but its not impossible that he'll have to.
On the plus side, my lovely brother Matt is arriving on Monday to look after me!!!
The deadline for the math book drawings is three weeks away so hoping all this will go easily. It will, of course... and maybe I can sneak in a few hours and finish Irene Singing.
Been knocked rather more than slightly by the surprising news that I need stents around my heart. The silence of the surgeon I had misinterpreted - but clearly there's no urgency since the issues were photographed in December. Awaiting dates now.
It's all very normal, it seems. Seems deeply unnormal to me, but hey -
Despite lack of documentation, pressing happily on.... ascent of the blessed, Irene singing healing song to a flamingo, a small lamb. Liking painting.
Also finished little book, 50 sayings and sources from Stafford.
Energy seems rather good despite a. hip b. shoulder c. ankles.
* Bob ill, Zoe turned up -
Started another pic and flummoxed already. Notable fear of finishing something assuaged by having something interesting to move onto to but spending studio time staring at inept sketches... still, Bob back today so unlikely to be doing anything for a while.
Galloping on with the Eden picture. Enjoying it far too much. Introduced the walking lions in memory of Bill Norris, seems right for an eden vision (however confused)
Started on this. In trying to recall the painting on the wall in my fathers study in Dore Road, found I had some ideas of my own...
Finished one, pleased... woke up raring for the next to find Bob seriously incapacitated. Might get a few hours in later.
Poddling on. Sundry interruptions but mostly plain sailing. Rediscovered the iridescent paints, so changes in the copying but an improvement IMHO.
and in the meantime, for a variety of reasons, was painting the expulsion from Eden. Doing a snake. And this weird shadow arrived on the ceiling!
- I seem to be back working.
The drawings for Maths book have to wait for lead author to recover from eye op before I find out next stage. (=more, less, appropriate?)
The three pictures in process are trucking on...
Def cheering up. Got the Stafford thing finished and OK'd by 2 brothers, which is enough; got 10 drawings done for the maths book; started on a painting or two which are delighting me.
The painting is a pic that is sold but a friend who wanted it has agreed that a copy, along the same lines, is acceptable. It was a picture I wasn't quite ready to part with so want a copy for me and a copy for friend. No doubt problems loom but for the moment quite happy :)
Only 1,000 words to go- been writing a chapter for Staffords festschrift which is both impossibly hard and occasionally a surprising pleasure. Many anxieties.
First that springs to mind is that l am not a writer. The piece is clunky and chichi and will have to have lots of attention before it goes out. Second is that combing my memories is distressing.
And my planned book is receding; further research, extensive and deep (ha!) reveals that my approach is not that original. Who's it for? Not longer interested.
Embracing failure, wahey! V liberating.
