My plans for 2021

Good riddance to 2020 and welcome to 2021. In this post I am sharing with you my plans for 2021.

I have to admit that I didn’t really want to write about 2020. I think we all agree that it was a hellish year. On many levels. The virus or rather the reaction to the virus has made life incredibly difficult and joyless. The things and freedoms we have taken for granted have been taken away from us – with lockdowns and a lot of ridiculous rules and restrictions – and there seems at this point in time still no end in sight. Instead, we can expect economic downturn, a high number of suicides, mental health problems, excess death from cancer and other serious diseases, and more restrictions. This really worries and saddens me.

2020 – a year full of loss, grief and worry.

On a personal level 2020 has also been a pretty bad year. In May my grandmother died. She was 97 years old. She didn’t die of Covid. Thankfully she died at home with some family members by her side. Because of the lockdown and travel restrictions I couldn’t fly home to Germany to attend her funeral. I had to watch it on What’sApp.

Only two weeks later my father-in-law died unexpectedly at he age of 73 and the funeral was a rather sad affair, as only 10 people were allowed to attend. It took until January this year to find out the cause of his death. It wasn’t Covid.

In November my great grand aunt – my grandmother’s sister – died, 6 weeks after she had suffered from a stroke. She was 96 years old. Again, I couldn’t attend the funeral. However, I was able to see her in August. She looked very frail and was quite depressed. My gran and her were more than sisters, they were best friends.

Losing three members of your family in one year is a rare thing indeed, not being able to say goodbye properly made this especially difficult. I miss them all very much.

Our Bobby had been to the vet’s a lot last year. We noticed that she was losing weight and was really manic. She had the urge to go on long walks in the neighbourhood (which was a bit exhausting), so we made an appointment. Due to the restrictions in place, we could not be with Bobby in the surgery, but had to wait in the parking lot, while our vet examined her. This hasn’t changed this year, you still have to hand over the cat and wait in the car. It’s like a drive through clinic.

Our vet diagnosed her with Hyperthyroidism and gave us meds. Thankfully administering the meds is really easy with her. No tablets just a liquid which we mix with a bit of Lick-e-Lix and she just licks if off.

Then she started to vomit a lot and she was diagnosed with pancreatitis. I can’t remember how many times we’ve seen our vet, quite a lot.  It was a very stressful time for us. Bobby is now stable, though this week we had to go back as we thought she was losing weight again. So, he checked her weight and her thyroid levels and told us to slightly up the dose of the meds.

In August I was able to fly out to Germany to see my family and say goodbye to my grandparents’ house and visit my gran’s grave. Flying out was very stressful. I find it hard to breathe with a mask on – especially when wearing it for  eight hours. I hadn’t realised when I booked my flight that my booking didn’t include the luggage – so you can imagine the stress at check-in when the woman at the desk told me. Thankfully she saw how stressed and upset I was already (because on our way to the airport the car broke down in the car park). She actually waved me through and the luggage without charging me for it. I had to pay for it on my way back though.

The mask mandate for shops was already enforced in Germany at that time. And at our family gathering it was really strange how we were supposed to keep our distance and not hug each other. Some family members wore masks and others didn’t. One of my cousins lives in Sweden and they took a very different route as to how to deal with the virus. No masks, just social distancing and the economy isn’t ruined. So, he is quite happy with his life there and I envy him a little. Seeing the house, that I have spent part of my childhood in, was really sad. I took loads of photos of each room and also of my gran’s sculptures. My gran’s hobby was pottery and she was very talented. She had her house filled with vases, plates and sculptures. These were divided up among the family members and some went to friends.

Sadly, I couldn’t take a  sculpture home as I was too worried it wouldn’t survive the travel -and travelling back was very stressful too. Plus, when my family divided my gran’s possessions and people could choose what they wanted I wasn’t there.  Instead, I inherited an egg that looks like made from Agate, an assortment of jewellery (some of it broken, which I will restring) and an enamelled image of Jesus washing his disciples’ feet and an enamelled cross. I also inherited old photos of my mum when she was 17 or 18 and myself when I was 2 or 3 – those photos were hanging on the wall next to the stairs that lead upstairs. I also inherited all letters I sent to my gran and correspondence of my gran and my mum, which was very strange to read. And I received a couple of lino prints that my grandfather made and a couple of his drawings. My granddad had two hobbies which he enjoyed a lot – making family films (some even with animations) and lino cutting. The squeaking sound of his lino brayer stayed with me over the years. My granddad died very young at the age 55, I only have brief memories of him, but I loved him a lot and was very upset when he died.

It was good to see my family again. My uncle managed to find the perfect buyer for the house – it went to a former patient of my grandfather’s. So, the property is in good hands.

The journey back was equally stressful as to Germany. This time, because I hadn’t realised that they changed the rules in the UK with regards to travel – and I had to download and fill in a form on my phone for the Border Control – which is not easy when your phone has storage problems and you wear glasses and a mask. Thankfully my dad was there with me which was reassuring. I really worried that I couldn’t get on the damn plane.

I don’t think I will fly for a long time – and it looks like that’s not possible anyway thanks to more strict rules by the government.

What else happened? Oh, I managed to fall down the stairs. Resulting in more back pain and a dull headache, but otherwise nothing broken. That’ll teach me not to wear slippers. I didn’t see a doctor – mainly because doctors don’t want to see you. Everything is now done by phone. Sad times.

After such a gloomy year, how is it possible to stay upbeat and optimistic? I don’t know. Especially as there simply seems no end in sight with the restrictions, and they seem to just double down, instead of learning from experience and data. The political climate in America also worries me immensely – it’s like history is repeating itself.

All I can do is making plans and make the best of things. One of the first things I did this year was to delete my Twitter account. I believe in freedom of speech and can’t stand censorship,

hypocrisy and double standards. I don’t’ miss Twitter.

I also deleted the Facebook apps on my phone, apart from Instagram, and this also has the positive effect that it is one less distraction. I now have it only on my desktop and my tablet and spend less time on it. I remember life before social media. Happy days.

My plans for 2021.

Last year I discovered lino cutting and printing. I filmed a review about the Artful subscription box which was dedicated to lino printing. I had a lot of fun carving and managed to not cut myself (that’s quite an accomplishment given that I am super clumsy). I used all of the blocks included in that box plus blocks I still had and showed my prints (on cheap paper) on social media and the response was positive. This year I want to print my best ones and sell them on the website. As it turns out lino printing is not that easy by hand. I don’t have space for a printing press, so I can only print by hand with a baren and a wooden spoon. I have joined a very useful Facebook group for lino-cutting and you get a lot of advice and tips on carving and printing from the members. So far, I have learnt that the type of paper matters, as well as what kind of ink you use. I have spent a lot of time just testing papers and inks.

I also bought some new carving tools that were highly recommended, they are made by Swiss company Pfeil. I will create a block just making marks with my various tools to see how they look and what I can use them for. I have also learnt a lot about different registration methods, which is very important when you want to position your lino on the paper. Apart from printing the lino cuts I have already made, I also want to create more blocks and try a reduction print (you use one block and carve and print it in stages and different colours).

I will still work with my polymer clay and will have a go at some of the tutorials I have bought including the PCA classes from Create Along.

I also want to create silver jewellery with my silver clay.

My focus this year though is really to concentrate on my art and exploring different materials and mediums. I might even join Redbubble and sell some artwork on mugs or T-shirts.

I have recently joined United Art Space which is helping me to develop as an artist and find my own direction and voice. It’s nice to be in a community with other talented artists.

I hope that one day (sooner rather than later) we will all be able to be with our friends and family again and without restrictions. I also hope that our Bobby stays healthy.

This is pretty much it for now. Not too ambitious and hopefully manageable.

Thank you for reading 😊

Helenx