BACK IN THE COVID - The Lockdown Diary Day 40

I have trawled social media today for clues but rumours regarding the whereabouts of Kim Jong-un cannot be verified. There are unsubstantiated reports that relatively straightforward heart surgery went wrong because his doctor’s hands were shaking and he has lapsed into a vegetative state. I probably shouldn’t repeat this joke which is in very bad taste but a contact on twitter suggested that we will now need to call him Kim Chi!

In the personality battle between Kim and Trump it is now evident that Trump has managed to enter a vegetative state first. A state which is on going and unusual since the poor afflicted man remains on his feet and apparently responding to ridicule. We wish them both well. I am not at all sure that the world will welcome a takeover in North Korea by Kim Jong-un’s sister Kim Yo-jong whose official position is First Deputy Director of the  Propaganda and Agitation Department. I kid you not!

There are times in our lives when matters seem to be contriving together to mean more than they would as individual concerns or events. This is just such a time for me. I am coming to the end of my latest oil painted work and as always with my paintings progress has been slow and intermittent over a very long time. But this is both the end of a painting and in this case the end of painting in a figurative style. I made that decision last year. I cannot stand for long periods any more and my eyes are simply not up to it. I am devoting what imaginative inclinations left to me on purely abstract work which is more amenable to my physical condition. This is actually a step which excites me greatly. Some months back I formulated the order in which the last components of the painting in progress would be approached and the very last part of the work would be a rainbow in the shape of a question mark.

I seems fitting that this lockdown has gifted me the time, concentration and conditions to complete the job and its most poignant symbol has become the same rainbow motif which will be the last component of my last figurative work.