Hi Everyone!
Spring has sprung, March is gone and April is here! Hope you are all doing well and riding out what I hope are the final months of the pandemic in safety.
I did not do much painting in the second half of March, because I took a nasty fall as I was getting up from my comfy chair. I started to turn to my right, and immediately felt myself falling. I tried to turn my body so I would land on the leather couch, but instead I managed to crash into its big, hard, rounded arm. You would think a leather couch would be soft, but that rounded arm was like a boxing glove with a fist in it. It caught the bottom of my rib cage and my right kidney. OUCH! I ended up sitting down on the floor instead of the couch, and it took a while before I managed to get myself back up with Melissa's help.
I'll be 81 in May, and have many years of medical self-diagnosis under my belt, so I determined that there were no broken bones and no visits to see any medical folks were required!
But there was a BIG UGLY bruise and some impressive swelling. It took about a week for the pain to diminish and another week for the swelling to fully go down. This put a damper on painting efforts, since I need to be able to move and swing my right arm.
Oh well - falling is just part of the Parkinson's adventure! I try to be careful, and it's never a case of tripping over something - it's simply a question of balance - or imbalance - particularly when turning or backing up. The doctor says there is no medication to help with this - the one I take helps with what is called "frozen foot" or "stutter step" but not with the feeling of imbalance. I just have to make sure that I have my feet solidly under me before I take off....
In better news, both Melissa and I have had both our doses of the Moderna vaccine! Yay! We won't change our behavior much for a while, but still it's a relief and a sign of hope that this thing is finally getting under control.
And in art news, because this is, after all, my art blog, I am trying a new brand of paint. I have been using Chroma professional acrylics, Australian-made, for more than 10 years and have always loved the products - still do. But they are expensive! On WetCanvas, the artist's forum I visit to share and learn with other artists, people were talking about SoHo paints, which are also professional grade, American-made, and much less expensive. I am reluctant to make changes when I've been happy with a product for a long time, and suspicious when something is priced so much lower. Despite my reservations, I decided to give them a try.
