Oil paintings installed with a dog harness embroidered with the words nervous dog. I have embarked on a practice led PhD. , but am fearful. Will I ruin my carefully formed cognition? Will I lose the space to do nothing for which I have paid dearly in material security? Can I even do this? My art practice is under threat as I trudge about from pillar to post adopting different precarious professional guises, mostly staring at tarmac and pavement unless distracted by a passing dog. I responded by taking hip level photos of the pavement and road, and then locking myself in my studio and making small enjoyable studies from the photos. They are the equivalent of barre exercises for a professional ballet dancer – little extensions and dippings – unfurling physical abilities hard won and remembered bodily. I paint the road markings, privet and bird shit like they are beautiful.