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For the past few months I’ve been doing lino-cuts. I hadn’t done any for about thirty years so it’s been a learning curve. Although they begin as a traditional lino-cut I’ve been printing each with an overlay of the same lino-cut upside down or another lino-cut, creating a form of abstraction, since I had not really used abstraction in my artworks before. I'll try and post some of the lino-cuts soon. I’ve also been reading past blog posts and I read them as a stranger whilst simultaneously recognizing the familiarity of my own voice and writing style. I realize that I hadn’t written anything for the blog for ages and that’s part of the reason why I’m writing now. I don’t want it to slip into oblivion.

I have an update on confusions surrounding the Clarke name. Theory proposed by our own family historian is that great grandmother Anne left her husband John Timewell Clarke after having five children by him and whilst pregnant she moved from Queensland down to Melbourne and gave birth to my grandfather Charles Winter Clarke. However she  registered his father as Stone, most probably because she was residing with him.  She later returned to John and changed my grandfather’s name to Clarke. So, unless anything else comes to light, I am indeed a Clarke and that’s fine by me.

During my absence from the blog I celebrated a significant birthday and felt happy because in 2020 I celebrated by alone, as did many because of CoViD lock down. We’ve just recently come out of our fourth lock down and I felt no joy because I understand we can so easily be flung into that silent space again where nothing is definite and all must be endured. I have to admit that I’ve not used zoom and immediately trashed any email that stated information was on line. Technology may have made many feel connected, however, I believe that we as a people are more lonely than ever because of the nuances of social media.

I’ve had my Influenza and first Astra Zeneca vaccine, with no adverse effects and have my second AZ in mid July. I fear for those who are not vaccinated and hope that if they contact coronavirus that they are not too ill. These are challenging times and I wish everyone the courage and resilience required.