Decided to make a blog/site on my sketchbook instead of uploading everything onto a powerpoint and rewritting everything from sketchbook to powerpoint. (Powerpoint can be so fiddly and the process will take me longer than a blog). Thankfully, blogs are my forté, been using them since I was about 8. I have a better hang of this. So here we are! Isolation day 21. I’m also almost 16 weeks in my pregnancy. Lett’s discuss abit of a background before we get into all the nitty gritty parts of the sketchbook. I’ve always thought a good sketchbook consisted of everything in your life, so this is just that but online. ISOLATION! Here we are, stuck indoors when the weathers 19 degrees. A few days before uni had closed down, and the virus was plastering the news, I knew what was bound to happen so I had prepared in my mind to gather everything, tidy around my house in York and decided I had to go back up to Newcastle where both me and my partners families would be, so they could support us in this time. My plan was to already move back up North in September when my lease ended and before my baby was due but I guess thats cut short. All our hours at work were already slowing down because the resturant wasn’t making much with worries of Covid-19. I had a chat with Jo and because of being vulnerable (pregnant and asthmatic) it was best to begin working from home. I ended up tidying everything from uni and picking some materials up and whatdyaknow! Shortly after uni was announcing closure. It all happened so fast. We were slowly losing work anyway and now uni was shut, so we gathered everything and travelled back to geordie land. It’s been a difficult one. Fast forward a few weeks, I think its three now(?) and I’ve had to experience losing a loved one to coronavirus. My grandad, its been really tough. I lost him on the 6th. And not to get too personal, he was pretty darn healthy and strong. I’m still processing it all, mainly confused and lost. Pretty sad. At least my pregnant hormones aren’t as bad, they were pretty pretty bad, and if we’re getting personal about that, I’ve been told I have a high chance of prenatal depression, and having the odd counselling services with the antenatel team has been a journey as well. Now, I know this may all be personal, but I have decided my art journey is a personal one, and things that happen in between is a part of life so I’m going to bare it all. I’ve been trying to juggle so many factors. Never did I know I would have to lose someone throughout this tragedy, and someone so strong and significant in my life. Typing as I break a few tears onto my keyboard, this is a part of art. I am a part of it. One thing, is once all the bad stuff happened, I picked up a few art tools. Began again to start doing art after two weeks of break. I don’t want to pressure myself, but I’m going to do what I can to occupy the time. So, enjoy all the nitty gritty bits of my online sketchbook. Its a part of me too.