Here we go, then. I spent four days last week figuring out how to use the WordPress software to completely rebuild my website. For ten or more years, I’ve cobbled together something from the basic, but elegant, site that A.B. Jackson made for me sometime in the lower Paleozoic era, free versions of blogging and mediating tools, and various desktop WYSIWYG editors. Every time I have tried a revamp before, it starts with good intentions, a determination to make the site easier to use, and a New Yearish resolve to update regularly, but that never happens. There has always been something more pressing to do.
Now, though, I’ve a studio to work in, stable remunerative employment and a list of projects, both writing and painting, to be getting on with, (one of which was sorting this site out); and while refurbishing a website might look like a displacement activity, it does offer– aside from the therapeutic value of twiddling with plug-ins and layouts – an opportunity for reflection. I have stability and that’s to be thankful for in these strange times. And it occurs to me that sitting in rooms out in the sticks working is all well and good, but here’s a tool here to communicate with the outside world, to share some art and talk about it, so why not use it. I hope, therefore, to do this a bit more regularly.
For starters, here’s a watercolour I’ve been working on of the view from my window.
Avanti! T.