I have been life-modelling for two years now. Then, as the Covid-19 restrictions started to hit Australia late March, my face-to-face life-modelling gigs were postponed, along with many other things.

I mean, I have done enough business, spiritual, personal development, and marketing courses to get myself through this uncertain period – right?

The fear that people started to express with sudden changes to everyday life, with loss of work and being at home, I had already experienced in the past year with my own experience of anxiety that had arisen from a panic attack. That had left me assessing my everyday life and stress levels. Sometimes it limited me to not leaving home for extensive periods at a time. This meant saying no to work that felt overbearing, and no to driving long distances from home. But in turn I was learning new ways to do things and living at a much slower pace.

I was already strangely prepared for COVID-19, and it came as a gift

I started offering life-drawing sessions online via Zoom, to drawers from anywhere in the world. People who haven’t drawn for years started coming out of the interweb woodwork.

It gave me so much focus and consistency in the week that my mental health benefited greatly. Receiving some income was lovely too. I wasn’t feeling overwhelmed with analysing life and my purpose, where I am going and how far I can stretch myself. For those two hours, I felt at peace, and calm, and so in love with the service I offer. I love inspiring artists. I noticed that they, too, have been this time out.

Art – yes, this is enough; this is necessary.

I started drawing again too, and so many other people in my networks started to reach out and express their interest in drawing. It has been a creative time for me. I think that life-drawing has been revolutionised and made accessible to more people.

And it has been life-changing for me as I continue the momentum with offering weekly classes, and slowly joining in-person classes again.

It's also gratifying that doing all those workshops – which cost me lots of money, and encouraged me to follow what I love – is paying off.

But the best thing about it is that it’s all happening for me in a focused and yet spontaneous way. I'm allowing life to surprise me – and it's proving to be a the perfect antidote to anxiety.

All drawings supplied by the author's life-modelling participants

Marija is a performance artist and an art model. She loves creating theatre and exploring the topic of mental health in her work. Instagram @marijatheromantic.