Hey everyone!

Just thought now would be a good time to update on how I'm doing in life and art at the moment. A lot of big things happening.

Biggest news is in regards to my mother's health. (Skip this paragraph if you aren't interested.) She had been getting worse and worse with her gut issues. After a hospital check-up on the 18th April, she was told that she would be admitted and couldn't go home that night. They did a CT scan on her that night and put her on the emergency list for a large invasive operation. She was extremely terrified of the operation and took a lot of convincing to go through with it. The next morning, she went into surgery and was sliced from chest to groin and had over a metre of large intestine removed. When they went through the surgery, it was worse than they had expected. She would have died within two days if untreated. They didn't re-section, so she will have the bag for now. She pulled through! Recovery will still be another 6 weeks. She is not yet able to walk around, but she can sit and move around a little bit. She was home after the initial stage of recovery. Yesterday we went to the local doctor to have her staples removed. A couple of hours ago, I heard a scream from the bathroom and she ran back to bed as fast as she could. A small hole had opened in the cut from the operation and she bled everywhere. We got an ambulance to take her back to hospital. Hopefully it is just a stitch and antibiotics job, but you never know until you hear from the doctors. So it is still ongoing!

Clearly, I have to look after her and it is taking up most of my exhausting days. But I'm still doing everything I can to work through art! I've been making progress on all of my commissions and will continue to do so throughout this whole period. Almost all of my commissions are getting close to completion now and that will be great! :D I'm happy to share progress pictures at any time, and always open to chat about current projects!

With all the stuff happening with my mother, it was really hard to also work on a full time online university course. I had to withdraw from my first semester and will apply for a remission of fees due to exceptional circumstances. The local university now offers my exact course (which they didn't before), so I am attempting to transfer my course to the local campus! It would be so much more beneficial to study in person rather than through a screen. I am still keen to continue with the studies, regardless if it takes longer to complete because of how life is.

Another great thing that happened is that a local internationally acclaimed artist/good friend endorsed me for a dream job! It would be at a local picture framing shop. Not only would this be a great trade to have as an artist, but it also provides room for progression and a chance to revolutionize his business with my digital knowledge! He has an expensive industrial printer and a large mechanical cutting machine which is capable of cutting logos and such that sign writers use. If I work under him for long enough, he wants to pass on the business to another person one day when he retires. He is the only name people think of for our entire region with framing and the place is always busy. So to land this job could potentially set me up for life!

That's about it for news. A lot of good and bad in there! I'm doing alright and focusing on getting work done. Hope everyone is well!

Have a great day and talk soon