In a content series curated by Rose Forde, contributors from issue 26 reflect on the new normal. Here, casting director Caroline Mauger shares her means of escapism – sketching 

Bonjour, I’m Caroline Mauger, I am a Casting Director based in Paris.

During my time in isolation, I started drawing, something I have not done much of in the past. For me, the first few days were the most difficult ones; being apart from your loved ones and precious habits is never a treat.

We have temporarily been deprived of some of our most basic liberties and luxuries (for good reason of course). I figured that, a great way to express my urge to feel freedom again was to sketch it. This opened up a portal of unlimited travelling possibilities; from temples in Asia to the Sahara Desert, I also found myself reminiscing and illustrating bar scenes… Sketching has been the perfect way to escape from an undeniably anxious climate. What we are living at the moment is crazy but I strongly believe that it will make us appreciate and respect our beautiful world that much more when it all ends.

Diana Vreeland once said, “The eye has to travel” and so, my eyes have been going around the world, until I can aspire to discover and revisit all of these places in person once again.

My drawings are being posted online, one for each day of quarantine @confinedpen