Week 5. Independent artists

Week 5. Independent artists

We got through another week of homeschooling. It has been busy trying to fit it all in. The girls are independent and would happily get on with learning in their rooms - but often their choices would be a lot of online stuff and so I am really keen to get them being more active. However, the difficulty has been that I am then trying to encourage them to do some craft but then I have to get back to my work - so when they hit an issue or get fed up, they just leave it and head back to their room. An example is this book about engineering structures with items to build - Bunnykins had a good go at it, but it would have been better if we could work on it together and chat - so it getting abandoned is no surprise.

This week I am going to try and alter my working hours, so that I am free from 12pm until 3pm for lunch and doing some craft or other activity in the afternoon. I am around during the morning to support them getting online, printing, problem solving and then joining them in our exercise activities (zumba online with Karen) - but I go back and forward to my computer when I am not needed. I need longer just dedicated to being around. It will mean that I am working later into the evening on my billed work, but we'll just see how it goes. 

One thing that is sure to get the girls moving is Frisbee. Mark has been taking them out to the park very late on in the afternoon after the park busyness has calmed down and just a handful of dog walkers and families remain. I like to walk around the grass and then join them for a little while. The girls are both getting really good with throwing and catching...need just one more person and we'd have an indoor team!

Friday was another busy work day for me. Earlier I had seen an article in time out about the National Gallery staff recreating paintings at home. https://www.timeout.com/london/news/national-gallery-staff-have-been-recreating-paintings-from-its-collection-while-in-lockdown-042020. It was a really amusing article and I do love that kind of thing. I was thinking we would all have a go at the weekend. At lunch time, with a hope of finding the girls something they could do to be independently occupied, I showed them the article. Woo was not at all interested, but Bunnykins said she would have a go that afternoon. I got the National Gallery website up on her computer and showed her how to navigate the site. At first she was getting annoyed with it, not being able to find the very exact things that she wanted, but I said that wasn't the point, helped her find a few bits and then I could tell she was starting to get into it when she was brushing me out of the way - I could see her getting into "the zone" in her mind. She had decided to use her guys as the models - which of course if I had been in charge - i would have resisted. I came into my room to find Roo Roo as the first model and I was impressed. 

I left her to it, I had a phone conference so needed to shut myself in the study. When I emerged, she had set up a whole "National Gallery experience" in my bedroom!

I printed out the pictures for her that she had used, so she could have some gallery information and suggested that we could have an official opening and swanky private viewing later. 

She thought this sounded great and went off to prepare further. I was pretty excited to - certainly an unexpected but a delightful way to start the weekend. 

The exhibits:

Portrait of a Lady

French

 (Fluffy Pigeon Black)

Manon Balletti

Jean-Marc Nattier

(Big Rabbit)

Portrait of a Woman

Michiel van Miereveld

(Roo Roo)

Madame Moitessier

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres

(Fluffy Pigeon Pink)

The Madonna of the Pinks ('La Madonna dei Garofani')

Raphael

(Maisy and Rusty)

So after supper, I organised wine and nibbles (lemonade for the girls), as is only proper for a private viewing event. We were given invites and made our way to the gallery. 

Little Rabbit did a sterling job as receptionist, taking in our tickets while we waited for the ribbon cutting.

Inside the gallery was a lovely opportunity to mingle and chat while discussing the nuances of the artworks. Bunnykins was very keen on us all picking favourites. I didn't feel that was entirely necessary as they all had something to recommend them. I thought the attention to detail was really good - she had spent a lot of time looking at each painting and then using really good ingenuity to come up with something to represent the important aspects. I also loved how she had chosen each of her models to capture the look and feel of the paining. Even though Portrait of a Lady was perhaps the simplest - Fluffy Pigeon Black had really caught the expression. 

Similarly the connection between Maisy and Rusty was the most striking. If I had been involved I would have been messing about suggesting we find a painting for the background and getting flowers and what-not. But I actually really loved that she had done it on her own - and they were all the better for it. 

And I must also say - that she tidied it all away on her own! I suppose independence can be a good thing.

Saturday morning Woo wanted to do some crafting. She wanted to make a felt rainbow to hang in the porch. We talked about it and decided to go with a felt rainbow heart. Having the crafting space made it all really easy - which I just love.

Bunnykins came in wanting to make Roo a tutu, which we had a go at, though I had to suggest some alternative options after realising that sewing tulle on my machine was not really going to work - we sewed it with a tracing paper backing that could then be torn off. 

 In the afternoon, I wanted to spend some time chilling out and not "doing". There has been a bit too much "doing" in my week. I am glad for all the things I achieve, but sometimes the brain just needs some space. I had started listening to a series of podcasts earlier in the week  https://onbeing.org/series/podcast/. The first one had been with Brené Brown called "Strong Back, Soft Front, Wild Heart". I had come across Brené Brown in TED talks recommended by Mush. Brené talks about vulnerability and courage and how shame is important to understand not hide from.


I try not to be a bystander; I try to be honest (with kindness); I try to be authentic with people. But sometimes that just gets you into trouble or disliked and I have ended up losing friendships and contact with family members. It sucks. It hurts - one of our most basic mammalian instincts is to want to be part of the group. We are social animals. I wrestle (as do many people) with managing the balance between speaking honestly and freely, and having a sense of making yourself known and visible to the people around you versus - not shaking stuff up - not saying the disruptive thing. I don't mean I am a "don't give a @3*%" kind of person. I don't believe in just saying what you think with aggressive abandon. I think kindness and consideration of people around you is important, but it is a balance when you can offend people with honest conversations or by just being intelligent or interested in art and not ashamed of that, or liking to question why we do stuff, or wanting to discuss religion or homeopathy or science, or standing up for a friend or a minority.  Anyway, what this means is that I have had mental health struggles. And sure that is not at all unusual. I don't say it to be all "poor me" or even "how unique am I". I say it to be truthful. My latest round of counselling was cut off before it even properly started by this lockdown. Lockdown itself has brought it's difficulties, not in terms of us facing any kind of hardship, but just being cut off from friends, and reducing the opportunities to have a massive old endorphin boost from laughing and singing karaoke with Claire, from getting a bear hug from Ben, from visiting Stella and talking and belly laughing, from chatting and charity shopping with Hannah, from sitting around a table eating and sharing our experiences and worries with the mummies.


Of course I am still messaging and video calling all those lovely people. I can still share what is going on and check in with them. But also I am finding these podcasts and time to just think is helpful. A few things have happened, that might previously have put me in a destructive spin, but I am finding more of an ability to say "no, I am OK as I am. I am OK with my human failings. I am good enough. I don't need to battle this out in my head. I have to carry some things with me - I can't just get rid and forget them. But I don't need to resolve and control everything. I can be with the chaos, observe it and sit aside from it."

...and of course when you can do this on a lounger at the bottom of your garden with a fruit cider... all the better.

Bunnykins had a go at a few more works:

Portrait of a young woman

The Graham children, Hogarth

A little girl with a basket of cherries

Big Rabbit as Rembrant (Self portrait at the age of 34) was certainly a favourite. She was keen that I post them online, but I was a little reluctant to get her too stoked up with likes. Internet fame can be a tricky thing. 

I had posted the Friday night gallery pictures on my Facebook wall https://www.facebook.com/charlotte.challis.1/posts/2906727942782118 and the lovely Shanta had sent me a link to another Facebook forum where people were recreating art with what they had at home. I posted about Bunnykin's works on there. https://www.facebook.com/groups/224247218846890/permalink/236678777603734/

The comments were really lovely!

But this one on the Raphael picture I just loved! The commentator was spot on with their analysis - the connection between Maisy and Rusty is both hilarious and heartbreaking 😍

Sunday morning Woo and Mark got up very early so they could go for a sunrise bike ride. They saw deer on the cycle track - even rode along for a while with the deer wandering then running just up ahead. 

I on the other hand slept in and woke up in a panic just before 10am when I was supposed to join some online yoga. Ran around trying to get ready for some calm 😜. I did feel better when it was finished, but I just couldn't be doing with anything productive, so it was back to the lounger for me for more podcasts. 

The day was rounded off with a chat with the Mummies. We might not be round a pub table, but it is still so lovely to see and hear them. 💗