Confinement is coming to an end here in Belgium….

But I don’t want to … 

 

I had plenty of things I wanted to do, and I wanted to rest also, and plenty of things to CREATE, and I didn’t do it!

I want more time of confinement… (I realize that I’m in a luxury position, although this situation is giving me work problems…, and that for many people confinement is literally deadly…. And here’s a big thank you to all who continued working, having essential jobs to our daily lives: the health care workers, shop keepers, garbage collectors, public transport workers…)

 

One thing is sure though: I don’t want to “get back to (what used to be) normal” ! But of course I want all the suffering related to the virus to end for everyone. But then, when it’ll be all over, maybe we can get a life of better quality, focused on the essential? But what is my “essential”?

 

Now that the confinement is slowly coming to an end I’m wondering how to move forward from here.

What I liked about the confinement is the calmness and the silence : less cars in the city, cleaner air, birds singing….

There was of course the stress of being infected, of sick friends and of not seeing family and friends, and not being able to hug them… But on the other end the obligation to stay at home, and the lack of work, took away some guilty feelings I usually feel when I stay home and don’t work. I usually feel guilty for not working. This prevents me to relax properly.

I usually feel guilty when I sit down and draw and paint. My subconscious telling me I should do something more useful with my time. This prevents me to make progress in my creativity.

 

So now with the confinement ending slowly  I’m asking myself what will be the new “normal flow of reality”… (slowly: the virus is still here, so we work as much as possible at home and we go out just when necessary. But shops will open and we’re allowed to visit limited family members (or fiends)….

 

I don’t want to start running again and get into a noisy rush of work, consumption, “métro-boulot-dodo” routine…

I really want to make more time for creation, and more time for relaxation and silence.

 

Anyway: what I’m happy about is all the daily video’s I made during confinement! They’re all available for free on my You Tube channel here : www.youtube.com/c/Barbaraluel

It was heart warming and stimulating to receive thank you emails from all over the world, with confinement stories and stories of how my videos cheer people up! The making of these videos also pushed me out of my shyness comfort zone and stretched my creativity.!

 

Here’s the one I made yesterday. It’s a bit shaky, because I was filming with my phone in my left hand, while painting with my right hand. Sorry for that! If felt soooooooooooo good to be painting outside again with two sketch friends  😀 ! It reminded me of the importance of “on site sketching” like urbansketching : when you sketch on site you connect with people and with the site, and this is vital for the spontaneity of your sketching. 

 

I won’t totally quit the video’s , allthough I won’t be making them daily anymore…

 

I hope you’re all well and healthy, as well as your loved ones.

Tell me if there’s a particular subject you’d like to learn about and which you ‘d like me to make a video about.