Books

Well, I think the time has come to let the cat out of the bag.

I've decided to write a book. I want to write about my combined experience of coming to live in Italy and learning to be an artist.

When I was diagnosed with cancer, and while I was going through the process of dealing with it mentally and emotionally, I found that my long-time problems with depression, perhaps surprisingly, have been greatly eased. I have been thinking a great deal about this, but not writing much about it. I think I have talked a bit about how cancer forces you to deal in the here and now with what's really going on. And depression is largely about succumbing to Fantasy. The conflict in your mind between The Real and Fantasy is, I think, largely what causes depression.

Two things have greatly affected this conflict: studying art and dealing with cancer.

All while living in a weird foreign country where I don't speak the language very well and am far away from all that was familiar.

The book will be about all these things: living in Italy as an Anglo-Canadian ex-pat, studying art, and dealing emotionally and spiritually with cancer.

One of the things I need to help with all of this is a few books. One of the ancillary consequences of the revival of serious art instruction is a burst of re-publishing of old classic art instruction texts. I have put a link to my Amazon wishlist on the sidebar. If any of you are inclined to lend a hand in this project, I would be very grateful to receive any of the books on the list.

One of the things I found myself wanting very much when the cancer thing was over was to be able to do more. More work, more art, more writing, more Italy, more museums, more reading, more gardening, more travel. More life. Life is happening now and I can't slow it down. I think I want to start running to keep up.

My three highest priorities after looking after my health, must be work, art and the book. This may mean that blogging will slow down a bit. Or a lot. I'll think about this some more.

HJMW



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