I always felt the same, until I was locked into it for 30 days straight....

or as seen on Twitter[1]: "Every January: One month hiatus from work, and I could finally publish my draft of the next bestselling novel

April 2020: Today I alphabetized the jelly beans"

1: not a reference to any specific tweet, just the general tendency of people to speak about grand plans and then never execute on them.

I think it has something to do with the background anxiety. Even if you're not particularly scared of the virus because you've been practicing impeccable social distancing and you still have a job, the uncertainty of it all can completely kill flow. And if you have a partner or kids, household management is disruptive even in the most organized families.

I've been blaming myself for the drop in my productivity and thinking something is wrong with me. It just realized that I must be kind to myself during these times.

Background anxiety is a perfect way to describe it, in fact that's what I'm going to say from now on, thanks.

So it was prescient to call it a "cocoon".

Worth a look if you want something uplifting. His work was simultaneously fun, childlike, insightful, insanely original, hilarious, timeless, and fresh. Few artists have been so purely enjoyable IMO.

Monet disagrees.

https://www.cmonetgallery.com/en-plein-air-painting.aspx

Before Netflix, Facebook, Twitter and cable TV it probably was.

I don't access any of these, but still it isn't very productive :) It is relaxing though, and the sky seems bluer.

Saul elevated cartoons to Art without sacrificing wit or humor.. Archive.org throught their NEL has some of his works, among them perhaps my favorite:

The Labyrinth https://archive.org/details/steinberg0000unse