‘Every nation gets the government it deserves‘ (Joseph de Maistre (1753–1821)) Certainly, it got the government that the majority of people in the UK believed in implicitly and voted for. But they didn’t deserve the current state of affairs, any more than those who cast their lots in a different direction. I’ve lived under the governance of thirteen Prime Ministers…

‘What is truth?’ (John 18.28) WFH: DAY 52. 8.00 am: A communion. 8.45 am: A quick Twitter review and the inbox before settling into the morning’s round of PhD tutorials. All my discussions seem to be of the present these days. The future appears like an under-exposed negative, presently: vague forms suggesting the presence of something more defined; spaces where…

WFH: DAY 51. Yesterday was a time for putting things away, self-examination, planning future dispositions of the mind and heart, reaffirming determinations, and standing motionless on one spot. I don’t often write to my constituency MP, but yesterday’s on-going debacle of governmental integrity and indecisiveness required a response: 8.00 am: A Communion. 8.45 am: Inbox plunder. 9.00 am: Today, there’d…

‘Be sure your sin will find you out’ (Numbers 32.23) House (detail) #30: WFH: DAY 50. Late yesterday evening, I read a conversation with Carly Berwick, an American sound artist, digital artist, and journalist who, like me, came to sound through fine art rather than through music. And, like me, found it difficult to locate her interests in sound and…

WFH: DAY 49. 8.15 am: A communion. 9.00 am: Fruit tea in hand, I caught-up on residual admin, notifications of classes and tutorials for next week, and student references. (In the background: BBC Radio 3’s Jazz Record Requests. The show featured the work of the saxophonist Lee Konitz, who died at the age of 92 last month. I heard him…

First, the flood; secondly, the fire; thirdly, the plague; and fourthly … . There will be a fourth. WFH: DAY 48. 8.00 am: A communion. 8.40 am: This would be the final day of third-year painting tutorials until the new academic year. (Never has that sounded less certain than now.) There were draft Powerpoints of exhibition submissions to review before…

WFH: DAY 47. 8.15 am: Doctory matters. Good to keep in touch … to keep on top of things. The surgery’s telephone answering message advised that if I was ‘either unable to breath or coughing-up blood’ then I should phone ‘999’, or else press ‘2’ (which seemed decidedly less alarming). 8.45 am: Assessments were resumed. Today I worked in the…

WFH: DAY 46. 8.15 am A communion. 8.45 am: I wired-up my ‘play’-station and tested the system, so that I could twiddle and click in between tutorials and admin tasks. I need to build into my regime reasons for standing up and walking around periodically. Sitting for long periods is problematic for me. Thus working from home requires intelligent, practical…

Sunday, May 17. Three times around the Vicarage Field: WFH: DAY 45: House (detail) #25: 8.00 am: A communion (silence, waiting, anticipating). 8.30 am: Letters to write, thanks to give, advice to dispose, and feedback to render. During lockdown, grey days proceed sluggishly. There’s an inertia that requires a very tight agenda of ‘to dos’ to counter. Begin with small…

We need to learn how to cope with the extra-ordinary and be ready all the time to keep moving (Rowan Williams, Being Human (2018)) WFM: DAY 44. 12.00 am: I stayed up to catch up on the School’s Creative Arts students’ 24-hour Freedom in Isolation online exhibition, which had been organised by Miranda Whall, the course co-ordinator: I was particularly…