Career (definition: ‘An occupation undertaken for a significant period of a person’s life and with opportunities for progress’). Career (definition: ‘To move swiftly and in an uncontrolled way’ ). Friday, December 4. 8.00 am: A communion. 8.30 am: There was some residual admin and preparations to complete before I returned to studio work. There was still much to do in…

8.00 am: A communion. 8.30 am: A readying. 8.45 am: Ready to go: The first of the day’s online third-year painting tutorials. In the background, our students are being tested for Covid-19 and, if their result is negative, beginning to ship-back home over the next week. It’s like a military manoeuvre. Their return to university will be a further challenge.…

8.00 am: A communion. 8.30 am: Emailery, postgraduate admin, and preparations for the first hour of the morning. 9.00 am: An initial MA fine art tutorial … 9.30 am: … followed by a pastoral tutorial. 10.00 am: I checked-over a new purchase of active monitor speakers. These, in conjunction with a sub-woofer, will serve as the main amplification system, both…

7.30 am: 8.30 am: Off to School to wait for the double gallery to be opened so that I could begin the Vocational Practice seminar. I’d time to venture into those parts of the building that I’ve had no cause to visit during this last semester. I felt the ‘ghosts’ of past students who’d walked these corridors: their laughter and…

Sunday, November 29: Monday, November 30. Too much trifle before bed. Will I never learn my lesson. Sleep was sporadic. I dreamt that David Bowie had made a comeback. That’d be quite an achievement. 8.30 am: What was before me this week? A lighter load, mercifully. Emails awaited. Projects are moving towards their conclusion. A space is beginning to open…

8.30 am: Breakfast (reversed). 9.00 am: Studiology. I made a final pass over one of the ‘Geographical’ compositions. ‘Was there a better way … ?’ Off screen, studio equipment was either put away or moved to the bathroom for the final ‘field’ recording. The CD project was moving to the close of the compositional period. Thereafter, I’ll be committed to…

8.15 am: A communion. 9.00 am: Studiology. I returned to ‘John Williams’, and sung in Welsh the first eight verses of Psalm 150 to the tune that I’d conceived last week. The output proved too literal to be useful; I’d anticipated that. A degree of abstraction was required, in order for it to mesh with the language of the composition…

7.45 am: A communion. 8.15 am: Off to School via the town and the supermarket to set-up my tutorial room. Again: This will be the final week for face-to-face tutorials. Thereafter, the teaching provision will be entirely online for the remainder of the term. We’ve all done well to get this far without coming a cropper. This week, the third-year…

8.00 am: Preparations for the day ahead. There’d be a further online Open-Day at 9.15 am, which would take up most of the morning. In essence, staff serve a role equivalent to those anonymous folk who respond to queries about products on internet sales sites: ‘How may I help you today, sir/madam?’ There’s a good deal of waiting around. (Not…

In making the painting you make yourself. Look at things that have no relevance to your work, because they have no relevance to your work.6.30 am: Rise. 8.00 am: A communion. 8.30 am: I headed to School to set up the Vocational Practice equipment and prepare for another wrangle with its limitations. For the purposes of a joint face-to-face and…