Alex Bastable

Alex’s Lockdown Story

‘I created this piece towards the beginning of the lockdown and at the time I was thinking quite a lot about the pandemic, the environment and the way we treat the world in general. The title of the work was inspired by the 1971 song by Kool and the Gang ‘Who’s Gonna take the Weight’, where the opening lyrics focus on how people have treated the world and each other and how ultimately, something or someone is going to want to know who’s going to take responsibility or ‘the weight’.

For me lockdown has been a positive and a negative. I’ve missed the social and physical interaction with family and friends however it’s opened me up to a way of communicating (online video calls) that I’d never really used and so I find I’m talking to family more than I have in a long time. Working from home is also a positive for me, however it took time to get used to it. The lack of a commute has given me so much more time in the morning and evening and enables a better work/life balance. There are times where I miss the office interaction with colleagues but for the time being the pros outweigh the cons. All of this has had a very positive impact on my mental health and wellbeing and has also made me realise how fortunate I am to have family and friends around me.

As someone that isn’t very good at expressing emotions verbally, I very much use art as a way to express thoughts, feelings, emotions and ideas. It almost has a meditative quality and in particular I use it to practice being in the present and to stop the ‘noise’ that generally goes on in our minds and so both in general and during the pandemic the practicing of creating art and being creative improves my mental health and wellbeing.

The lockdown has meant that I’ve more time to spend on my art projects.’

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