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Susan Stevens-Jenkins

The title of this work is ‘Forty-Nine Steps from Sanity’ and is dedicated to my four daughters.

The pandemic has highlighted and exacerbated mental health issues for many, and it became important for me to manage the small things so as not to be overwhelmed by the big ones.  My response was to walk a fixed daily path, noticing minute changes in the landscape; being actively creative and experimenting with printmaking directly from objects found on these walks evolved as a way of feeling grounded and connected with my surroundings.

The forty-nine monotype prints are one for each day I walked a two-mile circular route in the lanes surrounding my home during the first Lockdown and compile a visual journal of efforts to take control of my physical and mental well-being. The images represent glimpses seen through the hedgerows, distant horizons where my loved ones are currently beyond my touch.

I learnt how to edit and add content to my previously neglected website and wrote my first Blog.  I was driven to make work, owning and sharing it on social media in the hope it would evoke a bond with a viewer in a time when physical connection was, and still is, out of bounds.

I walked for my sanity. 

I’m still walking.