Monday Mark-Making …

I have talked much about my depression and complicated grief and will not dwell on it further.  It is not only deadly dull to those who don’t understand for those who do know, it is  best not to comment (unless requested).  So, like many of those who suffer from depression and complicated grief we spend time confused and alone both mentally and physically. We find ways to make these alone times pleasant and even joyful! We garden, sew, make music, sing and dance and more, often well and successfully. I have found this so and particularly mark-making has become for me a method to get me through.  Mark-making is something I do before I begin a larger or more detailed work.  I could take a few minutes or several hours.. There are two ways (at least) in which the session could end; there might be a finished piece or a heap of marks.  Either way there is a lot of material; some good and some perhaps not so. I am reluctant to bin it directly, the best option is to recycle not in the traditional way; I am not sure there is a particular need for my bits of art.  But I am sure in time it will be reused.

Like I said earlier, this mark-making often begins in a miserable place with thoughts of loss, regret, grief and hopelessness; but as the marks, colour and shapes come together so the feelings drop away.Then space is made for feelings that are less tiresome, those that are positive,energizing and creative.

So I have salvaged the results of previous mark-making sessions and am putting them together in an album. Not of finished pieces but scraps that can be embroidered or enhanced by another hand in Brazil maybe. … Today I hope these slivers of joy regained from the gloom can be bound in a monument of less complication at least!