Spring is Over

Summer is definitely here.

I have just returned home from a trip to the city. I made a deal with my partner that I would go to the dentist for a check up before Christmas. I have a tendency to put things like this off for a very long time, coming up with the lamest excuses as to why I can't go just yet or "I'll do it after my birthday" - which then became after my exhibition, which then became after Winter and so on. So, with Christmas and my next birthday fast approaching, I bit the bullet and went to have my incisors, canines and molars checked out.

I'd been dreading this visit as I was certain it would result in follow up visits and enormous bills right before Christmas. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that I only need one procedure done, a filling where part of a lower molar has broken - no doubt from clenching my teeth. It has been this way since 2003 so I thought myself lucky that this was all that was needed.

This has nothing to do with art, in fact, it is something that took me away from my art today. However, I was hoping to see the Tezuka exhibition at the NGV after my oral examination. Much to my dismay, I arrived at the doors of the NGV only to discover that they are closed on Tuesdays. I was not aware of this. So instead, I drove home (around an hour and a half trip) in the unrelenting heat of mid-afternoon.

The air conditioner in my car has not worked well, if at all, since a minor 'bingle' last year, and despite having it fixed, (or so I was told), it is still struggling. It is a luxury I can happily live without but I will say that at one stage I truly felt I was melting as my hands kept sliding off the steering wheel.

I used to hate Summer. I have very pale skin and also used to be prone to headaches, sometimes migraines, in the heat. Now, however, there is something about the heat that I love. I am not one to lie on the beach for hours, I've no desire for a tan and I do my best to keep out of the direct sun when at it's most potent and I can still get headaches from the heat if I am not well hydrated. The thing that I do enjoy though is hard to put into words. Despite feeling as though I was melting yesterday, with my sliding hands, damp skin, pulsating head and clinging clothes, there is a certain invigoration I feel now that I never used to.

When my partner and I travelled to Japan last year it was very hot, a thick and humid kind of hot. I remember our first day in Kyoto, he was tired and mildly exhausted from the heat, (which is exactly how I would have been a few years earlier), but for some reason I was full of energy, as if I was solar powered.

It is said that there are certain feelings, sometimes extremities, that make us feel really alive or 'energised'. I would never have thought that the heat of Summer would do this for me.

I used to also hate painting in the heat. Now, I enjoy it, and I also now have the room and facilities to paint outside, which, provided is not in the direct sun, is wonderful.