We find ourselves in February having, at least in my case, crawled through through the wretched fug of January only to discover that this new month is, very much, more of the same. At least today the sun is out in South London. I wonder whether the spectre of global climate change has altered the way I understand the seasons. Or is it just the desperation of someone trying to outrun S.A.D? When I was young I understood December/January/February as winter (in this hemisphere at least). Yet as an adult I am furious everytime February rolls around and Winter is still dragging on. Is it the memory of a few recent (scientifically horrifying) heatwaves in the early months of the year? Or has my desperation for daylight erased my basic seasonal clock? Either way I am filling our flat with supermarket tulips and daffodils and hoping to create a spring micro-climate in SE17.
My creative approach to January is to do as much as possible. LOTS is the answer. I try to make as many of one thing as I can in the grabbed moments between other, less pleasant, tasks. Last year, for example, I made a series of ‘friends’ out of mount board. (I still have a lot of these if anyone wants one. For cash. Obviously).
The repetition takes the thinking out of the process. My January brain is too anxious about Tax and student essay-marking and energy bills to be inventive. Sadly. So it’s useful, I think, to get stuck into a process, to start the year feeling as though you’re being creative even if you’re really on autopilot; colouring and cutting and sticking.
This year I dealt with a stack of old picture-frames that were sat in the studio. I cleaned them and then painted them and then made an image to go inside. Nothing groundbreaking but it gave me the feeling of work and the rememberance of how much I like noodling away at some painting with a very low stakes outcome.
Also in January I had a story published in the online literary journal Fictionable. You need a subscription to read it BUT if you do subscribe you’ll get acces to stories by Ali Smith and Sarah Hall as well as some lovely illustrated fiction by Isabel Greenberg. This is an image from my story 'Gorgon’ which is about a woman with an absent sister. It’s also about slimy mineral formations.
And finally a few nice things….(mostly music)
We went to see Hamish Hawk a few nights back and had a very lovely time. This song ended up being one of my most played last year.
Helen Garner on happiness in the Guardian.
I loved Tár. One of my closest friends absolutely hated it. We never really disagree and we’re both finding the situation funny but confusing. Anyway Lil’ Darlin by Count Basie and his orchestra is used in the film and it’s such a sleepy, romantic piece of music that I could listen to it for hours. Swoon swoon swoon.
I’ll be back in a few weeks with something more coherent in the meantime have a lovely week, take it gently.
Making sense of January in February
Love the frames! (And art inside!)
I always decide January is going to be a write-off, and then I can go about everything with no pressure and anything I do is a win.
Loved to read about just DOING (even if on autopilot) for January... An excellent approach and antidote to marking type chores. Thank you!