4 August 2020
As for many artists of all kinds 2020 has not been a boom year. It began well with two works accepted online for the Royal Scottish Academy Open Exhibition. However out of the blue came two ‘torpedoes’ – Covid 19 virus and then a period of illness for myself.
This began with a serious but routine operation. The operation went well but my recovery didn’t as I developed pneumonia. Recuperation from this lasted more than five weeks – just in time for COVID 19 lockdown. All planned projects were cancelled. My two works already delivered to the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh were included in the online only exhibition and eventually returned.
During this period I was struggling with a commissioned essay from the China National Print Museum, near Shenzhen, on the subject of Art Education. I found the task difficult because I had no information about the purpose of my text or the potential readership. Also I wanted to avoid extreme challenges to the translator. My experiences of art education are mainly UK based and personal. I supplemented my account by calling on some of my international artist friends to send me stories of their own experiences. ‘Lifelong Learning’ was my focus.