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Trip away

Writer's picture: spillustratespillustrate

I never want to go away from my home where I feel so comfortable and safe but one of my offspring FORCED me to go down to London to see them. I was away for a total of 5 nights which was a big deal for me. I’m getting better at managing myself, it is like going away with a small child, I have to be aware of it getting hungry / tired / overwhelmed / need for quiet time and take appropriate steps. Overall I would say it was big success for my neurodivergent self. We ate out at restaurants that were not too buzzy and crowded, I much prefer going to smaller, local places rather than big flashy places and I managed to have sufficient episodes of quiet alone time despite us sharing a hotel room.

My best moment (creatively):

I find that being out of my comfort zone is very stimulating for my creative drive, I just have to get the sweet spot between flying, ideas buzzing around and getting overwhelmed leading to shut down.  My daughter and I discussed options and decided not to race around seeing exhibitions but rather to chill out together. With this in mind she went off to a pilates class while I waited in a busy cafe for her. I ended up sat in a corner with time to kill and a sketchbook in my bag. I soon disappeared into the wall paper. It was like being in a life class as I happily dug up old techniques that I’ve not used for a while (in this case mark making then partially erasing then going back in and adding on top, the way Auerbach works so amazingly). It was so nice to resurrect this way of working and it led me to wonder if I could try and develop it in printing?




Another quick technique I used was drawing without lifting the pencil.




It was my idea of “happy hour”!

   

At the end of the visit I had to attend a family gathering elsewhere, another big pain for me (often precipitating a post event migraine). Trying to dodge Pimms,  polite small talk and a family member that I have BIG ISSUES with (that I have mentioned in previous posts), I noticed some of the boys sitting doing drawing and joined them. It was a welcome relief to me.  Later some family members commented on how talented the children were at artwork, the eldest boy (who is quite precocious and  thinks he’s best at everything) had appropriated my drawing and was drawing on top of it giving the impression it was his. I laughed and said, actually that’s mine, should I have let him take the credit? It wouldn’t have hurt if I had, but I just didn’t.


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