In January 2020 I started a project exploring my connections to the landscapes of my childhood memories  in Mexico City. I wanted to revisit the colour and drama of those memories, whilst building a bridge to my present life in a rural village in Nottinghamshire.

 

One of the aims of the project, was to set up an art making process that would involve co-operation from other people. Building a collection of images  from the places people were walking around in during the 2020 lockdown, turned out to be an ideal way of gathering fresh and unexpected imagery. Having a record of what I'm calling, 'escape moments' and then weaving these images into paintings and drawings, allowed me to renew connections with people living as far as Australia, Vancouver and Indonesia. It was inspiring to see something they'd seen and experienced.

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These moments of connection with geographically distant places and people, have taken on greater significance as the pandemic has evolved and changed our lives so drastically, leaving us nostaligic for the possibility of travel to the world beyond our four walls. It's been interesting to see what has captured our collective attention. Despite the growing chaos and discord around, there's an air of calm and quiet contemplation in the images people have sent in. They are capturing elements of nature with a new found sense of discovery and appreciation, and connecting with what it means to be outdoors and enjoying some freedom in a time of confinement.

 

It's been an enriching experience to view distant volcanoes in Mexico, to poke around vegetable patches in Essex and to get lost down mysterious wood lined pathways in Somerset. The ablity to journey to another place in my mind, has been a welcome escape.  Imagining the underwater tropical world in Cancun and having the time to ponder over the life of a lonely broom on a patio in Guadalajara, has been a most theraputic form of armchair travel. Something between escape, nostalgia and a dream. As I write this, another lockdown has started, it's the last day of 2020. 

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