As we enter the eighth month of 2021, Newcastle and the Hunter region are now in lockdown. Sydney, the Central Coast and other areas of NSW have been in lockdown for a month or so now. The threat of COVID is real again, especially for those of us who may have become complacent. Having positive cases in Newcastle puts us all on edge, makes us a little less comfortable around others.
Just last week I was at Waratah Village. I’d just come out of Coles with my support worker when a woman walking toward me began to cough. She was less than a metre in front of me. Her cough was congested and hacking. She made no effort to cover her mouth and wasn’t wearing a mask. There are so many possible causes of that cough, but I’d wouldn’t be honest if I didn’t acknowledge the fear the sound of that cough triggered in me.
The thing that yet again helped recentre me, is my art.
I spent last week working on the creation of a mould. A mould that I will be testing out with resin when I can visit safely again. I’m looking forward to being able to turn the pictures in my head into tactile creations.
My art brings me into the present. What’s gone before, and the myriad of possibilities waiting in the future, disappear. There is only that moment and the process of creation that matter. It’s my meditation, bringing my heart rate and breathing back down. I can enjoy what I’m doing without questioning the results, the future.
Even in lockdown, I will always have my art. A way of expressing what I’m feeling and thinking. A way to be calm and in the moment.
Why don’t you give it a try?
-Sam Ogilvie
