AT EASE !

I’ve been away on  Fire training Course for a week, piloting some back to basics refreshment alongside some new recruits. These courses are very intense, both physically ( and mentally ) demanding but also you become rather institutionalised and so immersed with your peers/ team/ crew. The rest of the world drops away a little. Probably a good anti-dote for me when I can get so intensely immersed in whatever art project I am working on usually, by myself, locked in a world of art, ideas and emotions. The adjustment is sudden and difficult.

My art world is chaotic, I sleep, rest, exercise and eat at random times, head full of colours, symbols and feelings. The Drill yard world is ordered, everything organised, routine, regimented. You become a number, commands barked at you, no place for ego or emotion, no place for the ‘I’, its all about team work and tasks. Head full of numbers and technical terms.

I guess both require mental discipline, overcoming barriers, hurdles, getting past that ‘wall’ . No place for defensiveness, blame, excuses. This week was tremendously hard, I am bruised all over and every muscle aches, I’ve lost 3″ from waist, I was not the best at everything, I struggled with some things. Its not easy going back to basics. Humility. But I feel great for it. I miss the team though. Always strange re-adjusting back to our normal lives without commands, leaders assessing and a strict programme, life without the team at your back, pleasing only myself and the Muse ( and editors, collaborators, patrons and clients of course ).

There is no ‘I’ in TEAM ( but there is ME )

So now its back to pick up the art projects, finished off the Robin Hood painting & fish around back into my art brain mode… prehaps I’ll need someone to shout at me to get on with it? ” ART DRILL COMMENCE! “

meanwhile while I was at boot camp the BBC ran a piece about the ‘Spirit of Hope’ charity book I drew two strips for. HERE. The books can be bought from the Comic Book Alliance Website.