Julia Lazumirska

Last spring, with the beginning of strict quarantine restrictions, I had the opportunity to go cycling, because I lived outside the city. Wherever I went through deserted streets and roads, I always came across a very popular concrete fence in rhombuses like diamonds. Every such meeting gave me a sense of a dead end until the marathon term “meet the wall” came to my mind. It describes the state of the runner at the last stage of the distance, when all internal reserves are already running out.

The main thing is to keep moving in order to trigger the body’s response to save energy and use internal reserves to overcome the obstacle.

I switched to creative mode for seeking inspiration from simple things that I would not have noticed before.

So, I began to see various shapes, colour spots and how light and shadow play on the fences. And the feeling of hopelessness turned into irrepressible enthusiasm.

In conditions of quarantine and the inability to maintain accepted social norms, I had time for deep personal changes: I plunged into my inner world, overestimated life values, discarded outdated attitudes and limiting beliefs, which opened a new stream of awareness and became the basis for creative ideas and plans.

The only sources of inspiration for me were nature and small everyday joys: the shadow of a branch on the fence, a fantastic flower accidentally found, or a homely bouquet presented by my husband with words of love. I was looking for beauty in everything in order to fill myself with the positive energy of life and I want to share my results with others.