Reflections on a year+

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Remember when no one had heard of "Zoom"?

I thought that I was going home for 3 weeks and it became 14 months. It was tough, but also my first time to just be an artist. No side gigs. Who would've known it'd only take a global pandemic to reach this goal?!

My memories include:
+walks to a hill that looked over Dublin city.
+learning about photography from my Dad
+learning jewellery making
+dancing outdoors and kids asking was it for TikTok
+teaching and bashing the chandelier in the living room
+the sense of community in the online artist meet-ups
+an existential crisis everytime the restrictions changed
+people walking on the road to avoid you
+discovering the mountain view out my childhood, bedroom window
+my first commission (and second...)
+online drag shows
+too many amazon orders
+plants. So many plants. 
+teaching on Zoom, creating on Zoom, a birthday on Zoom. 
+obsessive instagram house decoration stalking
​+anxiety

I'm starting to forget and it's not even over yet. What do you remember?

Is this the real life?

​I feel like I am getting on
Just fine
Without you.
I don’t want to jump
Anyways
Or lay on the floor
Crying.
 
Too much.
But I haven’t-
I’m thrashing around
Under a dark cloud
On a hill overlooking the city.
 
Can you please not put on the dryer?
I’ve spent months on this funding application,
Noticing the changes in the seasons
And
The mushy dance moves.
 
The garden changes day to day
And my houseplants always need
To be repotted
Or else they will get homesick
For the sky.

With thanks, the time for this reflection was supported by The Work Room, Glasgow in collabooration with Dawn Hartley.