Welcome!

With the madness of the pandemic continuing, lockdowns being brought back and studios being closed, I thought I'd add a little blog section to my website. The idea is to have a place where I can keep an online journal of the work I'm making, keep anyone who is interested updated, and use it as a way of holding myself to a bit of accountability, when it is all too easy to stay in bed doomscrolling the day away.

My plan is to post the work that I've been doing, and perhaps a bit of research, updates and other things floating around in my brain every Monday evening. It's really tough to find motivation at the minute. I've found it very hard to stop obsessing about the news, and find any space in my mind for creativity. January always hits as a particularly cruel month, and the winter feels particularly bitter this year, particularly for creatives.

​Like all freelancers, and all in the creative and hospitality industries, last year was really, really tough, and sadly this year doesn't look like it will be any better. We all lost work, money, security, opportunities and in many cases, a sense of creative freedom and inspiration. It's a really scary time to be in a constantly changing and uncertain industry. But! All the amazing creativity I see around me gives me so much hope - I know social media can be a double edged sword, and we all sometimes allow ourselves to get into Instagram stalking holes, but the creative output I've seen over the past year has really lifted my spirits. We are a resourceful and resilient bunch of people, so we will reimagine our working habits, and come back refreshed and renewed, hopefully in a more accessible and welcoming art world once this has blown over.

Till then, I've been trying to make myself laugh by doing stupid songs with Fernando...

​And I've managed to do one drawing... This tiny dead chameleon was sent to me by Tonja Grung who runs taxidermy courses in London - in 2018 I made a taxidermy crow on one of her weekend courses. 

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The other thing I've been working on is my Etsy shop - advertising and promotion is really not my strong point, so I'm trying to be brave, put my work out there and hopefully sell a little bit. It's been so important over this last year to support independent businesses and start ups, so I've been trying only to buy from small shops and artists, and have my own shop up and running. You can find my shop either at the top of my website, or through this link - www.etsy.com/uk/shop/JessicaHeywoodArt

Finally, one of the things I really enjoyed about being furloughed last year was having a lot of time to read - I got through about 90 books last year, and I'm hoping to keep up with a lot of reading. I'm currently reading Emma Glass' 'Peach', which is a short, sharp book. It's a difficult read though and comes with a Trigger Warning for Rape and FGM, so please proceed with caution if you're interested in checking it out.

Next update will be Monday 18th Jan.