12/05/20 - International Nurses Day - Shine a Light

Today marks the 200th anniversary of Florence Nightingale's birth and to mark the occasion the public were encouraged to shine a light out of their windows this evening at 8.30pm. This is in recognition of the incredible efforts and sacrifices being made currently around the entire globe as nurses and care staff continue to fight the Covid-19 pandemic. This simple act of shining a light is also an attempt to ensure the day receives the recognition it deserves, considering that ordinarily it would have been a 'time for mass celebration' (The Royal College of Nursing). My husband lit a candle and we dispayed it in the window from 8.30pm. Sadly I couldn't see any others locally but my mum and auntie both did the same over on the mainland as I'm sure many other people did around the country this evening as well.

I absolutely love the new Banksy piece of artwork that appeared in Southampton General Hospital last week. It is hung in the foyer close to the Accident and Emergency department. It features a young boy playing with a toy superhero. He has thrown his Batman and Spiderman figures in the bin and instead holds an NHS nurse in his hand, raised high in the air as if flying. She has her arm stretched out forward to suggest she is on a mission and her cape billowing out behind her. She is also equipped with an apron and face mask. The Red Cross emblem featured on her apron is the only colour within the artwork. Staff believe the art will remain at the hospital until the Autumn, at which point it will be sold to raise funds for the NHS.

Banksy left a note for the staff in which he reportedly expressed his thanks to them for "...all you're doing." He also conveyed his hope that the artwork might brighten "...the place up a bit, even if it's only black and white." Fantastic idea and I'm thrilled that this has happened so close to home, over in Southampton.

Today I spent the afternoon working on the collage element of #18. I used sections out of an old Grand National newspaper supplement as they are pale yellow. I took inspiration from #4 in which I collaged a newspaper section using the Racing supplement. It is on the wall in the bedroom at the house because I made it quite personal to R and it is his favourite piece from the 40@Forty project. Having spent such a huge amount of time here during lockdown, I suppose being exposed to this piece has reminded me how much I enjoyed doing this type of work and also how effective I believe it to be. So, I decided to mark out an area within #18 to collage in a similar vein as #4. The racing pages are fairly insignificant; the only reason they are being used here is due to the colour and this being a Yellow piece.

This technique is terribly time-consuming. It took hours today to reach a point where the majority of the collage was done and I could stop, but even then I returned to it once more to fill another small area. I am thrilled with the result, as I expected I would be. I now need to work on finding places to put the other bits and pieces that I wanted to include in this piece. That can all wait until tomorrow now!

Yoga for today was quite interesting. I always scroll through the available videos rather than searching for specific things. I then choose what feels right at the time. Today I woke up with a headache and although I know Adriene does have a 'Yoga for Headaches' it just didn't come up. So I settled on 'Yoga for Hangovers' and 'Yoga for Self-Care'. Both were really good for my aching head and I felt happy that I had given time to yoga this morning, despite feeling rough. I am experiencing quite a lot of headaches again at the moment but I am noticing less back and hip pain and I am sure this is down to my daily yoga practice.