Even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you (Psalm 139.12).

6.30 am: Awake. 7.30 am: A communion. The verse (above) was written to assure the anxious faithful that they cannot escape God’s presence, influence, and cognizance of them. His reach is as wide as it’s deep. Though they feel overshadowed by doubt, sin, guilt, hopeless, grief, illness, or perplexity, bear a pain that’s invisible to others, or are obscured by their loneliness and isolation, nevertheless, God still sees. Our condition, however black it may appear to be, will not conceal us. We’re, as though, hidden in plain sight – in bright sunlight – where he’s concerned: entirely apparent; in sharpest focus over every detail; and understood, through and through. As a visual artist, the final clause takes the top of my head off: ‘for darkness is as light to you’. I think of night-vision technology, of an impossible chiaroscuro, of a paradoxical ‘dark-light’.

8.30 am: I prepared to run the gauntlet of raindrops en route to the School for a parcel check. 9.30 am: Back at homebase, I completed two further PhD monitoring reports, in my capacity as second marker, before returning to the studio and pedalboards.

[Geek alert!] I added a TC Electronic Mimiq pedal to Pedalboard I. This effectively and perceptibly splits, micro-delays, and doubles the output of the board to create a stereo signal from a mono source:

An identical unit will be installed on Pedalboard II. There it’ll separate a stereo source into two perceptibly separate images, when placed in the effects loop of the amp. 12.00 pm: Marmite time!. Pedalboard II was, then, prepared for the arrival and installation of the additional Mimiq and a new pitch-shifting pedals:

1.45 pm: Off to the School for an afternoon of MA fine art tutorials and advisory sessions, including a Skype engagement. Why do I always appear so old, grumpy, and tired on cam? (‘Um … maybe it’s not just on cam, buddy!’, the voice conjectured) :

Some principles and observations, on reflection:

• Trust that it’s enough.
• It’s not what you can’t do but, rather, what you don’t recognise that you can do that’s the cause of your lack of confidence.
• You become a PhD Fine Art student over time, and not at the beginning of the scheme.
• Remember, the endeavour is practice-led; therefore, let ideas emerge out of the doing. Don’t over-think to begin. The question you’re searching for will emerge from the doing of.
• Theory is the interpretative explanation of what takes place within the picture. In this respect, fine art isn’t like science. We begin in darkness and work towards the light, sometimes following no more than a vague intuition.

7.30 pm: I returned to administrating postgraduate monitoring work.