How time has flown … into an art venture!

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31 January, 2022 by Tricia Hood

I’ve just noticed that this blog has been sitting here, totally neglected since 2012. It’s been just over 8 years since I last posted and I was staggered to see that over 600 of you have followed in that time. Thank you, and I’m so sorry! Sorry I didn’t notice, and sorry I haven’t posted.

So much has happened over that period. So many ups and downs. Kids have grown up, I’m nearly an empty nester with only one, now adult, child left at home. I guess you’re thinking, yay, now you’ve got more time. Um, no. I’ve taken on more responsibilities with advocating for a disabled sibling. Oh how I love the bureaucratic nonsense of the NDIS … not. Who would have thought the government could come up with an agency that employs people in the disability sector who think amputee’s limbs will grow back, and people will recover from autism or Down’s Syndrome … I kid you not. I’m also sadly, contending with a now nonagenarian parent. I feel lucky my mother is still with me, but it breaks my heart to see a once very independent woman, slowly succumb to deteriorating vision and hearing.

With all of that happening, plus a dash of some unpleasant abusive behaviour, that got thrown at me from a few different directions by different people (long story), I feel not only older but emotionally stronger and wiser.

The good ol’ ME/CFS is still very active in my life. At times I wonder if it’s actually causing more deterioration. Covid19 which has put a totally different spin in isolation though. For me and others like me with this illness it’s actually brought about more inclusivity. Sadly those with Long Covid will be joining our club, let’s face it, they’re pretty much one and the same thing. But concessions like online concerts, tele-appointments with clinicians, working from home, etc all becoming more the norm, we’re finally feeling like we’re being included in society.

On the upside, I’m starting to reclaim myself. The world changed greatly in 2019, and I also started to look at my own life. I started looking for my identity again. My dream as a teenager was to be an artist, but like most of us of our generation (I think I just made it into the Boomer category), we were steered into ‘sensible’ careers. My years of being a ‘secretary’ held me in good stead, but that burning desire to create has remained with me over all these decades.

With the uncertainty of where my marriage was headed I felt I needed to look at avenues of what might provide me with some meager financial supplement to my disability pension. There was, and is still so much uncertainty. My art was always a place of solace, especially when things got tough. So in 2017 I picked up a brush and started to paint. I started to teach myself and learn through experimenting. Since that time I’ve gravitated towards watercolour and seem to have found my niche. This medium lends itself nicely to being something I can even do from bed.

I made the commitment at the beginning of last year to take my art journey seriously with the aim of building it into ‘something’. Hopefully a business. It’s still very much a work in progress, but it’s culminated in what you can now see on my website www.triciahoodart.com There goes my anonymity!

If you’re one of those lovely people who subscribed to this blog I’d love to hear from you and find out why you’re following so I can give you more. If you’re not a subscriber, then heck, who cares! I’d love to hear from you anyway, so leave your feedback below and tell me what you think about my new venture. Better yet, subscribe to my art page if you want to see more and be part of the action.