Since my last blog a lot has happened. 2021 has begun, I’ve had a little girl, we are in our third lockdown and we’re experiencing COVID variants. Having a daughter is a lot harder than I thought, I imagined I would be reading through my research, watching videos about play and chatting with the project partners. I’m pleased to say that some of this is happening, I am in-touch with all of the project partners, my critical friends Ruth and Jess and I’m reading Michael Rosen’s Book of Play but I don’t have much time to reflect in blogs on it yet. I’ll get there!
The changes to the pandemic are making the project more challenging. When I began the project I thought we’d know what the summer was going to look like and the partners would be planning towards their festivals, exhibitions and installations over the summer. As you can imagine none of them know what the summer will be like so they can’t plan yet. Some partners are on furlough and others are waiting until Easter to making any decisions which I think is wise.
Today I spoke with Ruth my mentor from STEAMhouse (if you’re a West Midlands artist you should join, it’s great) and we talked through the project and my feelings of guilt for being slightly behind schedule. Ruth made a very good point, I need to do the project well. The current circumstances aren’t making it easy to do so. For now I need to stop feeling guilty, enjoy being a mum, do research around play and let the future unfold a bit before doing my COVID research with my partners.
Things might be a bit quieter around here than I planned for, I promise I’m still working and thinking about my practise all of the time.
