How are you?

If 2020 has taught me anything, it is not to live my life exactly how I planned it on my; to-do list.

This blog post was supposed to be about my latest mood, Alien, but due to restrictions and wanting to remain as responsible as a brand as I can be, I have decided to wait until the restrictions are lifted and we are in a better place. Not going to lie, finances also play a major factor…LOL.

It seems miles away but I want you to tell yourself, we will get through this. All good things take time!!!

2020 was going to be an amazing year for my brand, Julian Garner Headwear, however, the universe had something else planned. I have learned not to hold that grudge, let it go, and most importantly, make my business survive.

How great will it be when this is all over, we come out of it and we can say, “MY SMALL BUSINESS SURVIVED!” It would be awesome. However, if it doesn’t, then that is by no means a failure, it is simply the sands of time pushing you into another direction. We are now two months into 2021…keep that head held high and be positive.

I was stretching the other day after my run and I had a little epiphany. In life, there is always a 50/50 chance of something happening. A yes or a no. In between the yes and the no or the 50/50 I call this the middle ground. It is where the universe is wanting me to be, right now. This place is not a bad place to be. Think to yourself right now, as you read this, how lucky are you to even be in the middle ground? WOW!!! If something comes up and you get a YES, then you move to another middle ground, further from where you were. This is a great place to be as it offers new doors of opportunity, future middle grounds with endless possibilities. Now I thought, what if it’s a NO. Well if it is, it is still a great place to be because again you are surrounded by doors of opportunity, you’ve just got to wait until that one door opens and allows you to move to the next middle ground. This really helped me to settle my nerves and gave me a perspective that here and now is just as great.

I have been going through some therapy, super lucky, due to a few issues I have had mentally. The first lockdown hit and all that time allowed me to finally think and process what I went through when I lived in Zimbabwe. The first time I really took stock of the major events that happened within a year and a half, ignoring the years previous. I came out of that lockdown incredibly tender and full of anxiety. I went from post to post and eventually by lockdown 2.0 (tier 3 and eventually tier 4 living in the southeast) I was on medication and talking to a therapist every week for 6 weeks. I faced a lot of demons and finally spoke to a professional about the many thoughts I have had. Lockdown 3.0 (National Lockdown) has seen me come off medication, I have never been good on anti-depressants, and I find myself reacting really well to the ongoing therapy I do by myself through an amazing site called Silver Cloud as well as the modules I was given by my therapist that I work through.

So a couple of weeks back I suddenly had a feeling that I recognized and it made me so happy. It was a week after been off my medication. I could feel my thoughts again. Now I know that sounds a bit weird but I seriously could feel the clogs that had been numbed churning. As a designer and working as a drag artist I used to find myself having little blips of inspiration. I would grab my notebook or iPad and scribble or write them down. This hadn’t happened and all of a sudden there I was, having them again. It felt so good. For me, personally, every Monday working on myself and spending that time to simply focus my energies on healing have been so incredibly helpful. One thing I want to promise myself is that I always take the time to continue to work on myself. The experience has been extremely inspiring.

Now when I look back on 2020, that middle ground, I can tell that I am definitely on a different ground, still middle, but I can feel the opportunity to be had.

One of those moments where I had a creative blip of inspiration I created. My favorite thing to do. Execute what is in my imagination. So I got to work and decided to create an Alien-inspired look since I can’t shoot my latest mood. Very much inspired by the distorted drag artist Hungry, Instagram - @isshehungry. Now if you don’t know about them please do yourself a favor and have a look. You will be blown away.

I made the face jewelry having made the molds first and then once they were dry I hand-painted each piece with makeup ready to be adhered to my skin and bring the whole look together.

The wig was an old one I had worn so many times before so I restyled it and lobbed off a good 15 inches to achieve an almost UFO-inspired shape.

Now a look this crazy would be nothing if it wasn’t for some lovely crystals from Poppy at Crystal Parade. I used two types on offer. They are as follows;

The Resin Flat Back Pearls 18mm and the Swarovski 6 x 1.7 mm Non-Hot Fix Raindrop.

I adhered all the face jewelry and crystals to my skin with spirit gum and then went to shoot the look.

VISIT https://www.instagram.com/madamemumuofficial/ FOR MORE DRAG LOOKS!!!

Now it is obvious that these images have been edited and yet again I took inspiration from another favorite artist of mine. The incredible Franz Sony, Instagram - @franzszony. Not only is he an amazing artist but also a great singer. Check out their music on Spotify. My favorite song of theirs is; What You Seek. Very poignant for seeking new opportunities on your current middle ground. He turns out these amazing images by simply using what is already there but amplifying it. So I took inspiration and went to town. I love the result and hope you do too.

Next month I shall be writing about my latest mood Alien and if you want to have a sneak peek, head over to www.JulianGarner.com.

For now, my goddesses and gods know this…you’ve got this.

Write soon…xoxo