Pandemic Art Studio Photo Essay #4
by Kristine Schomaker
(Scroll down for more information on how to be included)
Name: Ada Miller Seattle, WA, USA Facebook: ADAMILLERART Instagram: ADAMILLERART Website: ADAMILLERART.com Mastering the nomadic art Normally I live overseas and paint whatever inspires and moves me there. I have a small art studio set-up there. However, because of pandemic I had to move around more than usual changing different locations and spending quite a few months in Seattle. Because of that I adopted my art set-up to be more mobile. Instead of stretched canvasses I started using canvas rolls and taping them to the walls, this way when we move I can just roll all my art into a bundle that can fit into a travel bag. I love the ocean in Seattle and found myself visiting the small local beaches that are not very crowded more and more. The sounds of the waves and the scenery became my favorite place to go. I started sketching with watercolors more and more since it is easy to carry everywhere. Being able to do life sketches is fun and refreshing and helps me explore ideas for the larger acrylic paintings. So, “Mastering the nomadic art” can be the name of my pandemic journey.
Aileen Rodriguez Imperatrice http://www.aileenimperatrice.com @aileenrodriguezimperatrice Fresno/CA/USA If you would like to include any text with your image about how you are dealing with the Pandemic, feel free: With art venues closed (studios, galleries and museums) art shows have been cancelled, opportunities lost. The interesting option to increase has been online shows of which I have participated in and continue to do so. I continue to promote my art online and continue to enter art shows through online communication. I share photos of my art, online exhibitions, my website updates and other online portfolios of my work, as well as videos. I’ve also participated in online shows interviewing me about my work. I have other ways of online promotion planned for the near future. Meanwhile through all of this shelter in place for the very real threat of COVID-19, I have also been battling Cancer. Since December 2019 when I was first diagnosed, I’ve had to undergo every possible test, scan, biopsy, etc. and then began Cancer treatments in January. By March instructions to shelter in place, I had already been through my Chemo rounds, and then began Radiation treatments that ran every day for 2.5 weeks in April. I am severely immunocompromised due to going through Cancer, its treatments and the take down of my immune system through all of it. I am currently waiting for my next PET scan and results to find out if I made it to remission. I am still extremely vulnerable and will continue to stay home, only going out to my doctors’ appointments. At least more recently I have regained enough strength to begin painting again (smaller pieces) and have sold a few as soon as I finished them. In this photo you see me with one of my hats on to keep my head warm from the loss of hair due to Chemo and Radiation, working on “Paper Doll Dreams” .
Name: Belen Islas site: belenislas.com IG: @belenislas City: Los Angeles, CA Since the quarantine started, my life has been upside-down, backward, and inside out, you name it. Suddenly, I became a full-time teacher, cook, deep-cleaning specialist, and nurse on top of everything else I already had on my plate. All those changes brought new perspectives and inspiration. It is also a good time for experimentation. The pieces created since the quarantine started are exploring more indoor places, intimate ideas, and dreams.
Brendan Murphy https://www.brendanmurphyart.com https://www.instagram.com/brendanmurphyart/ Malibu, CA “Inspiration for my work is exploring how we process emotions, the internal struggle that is shared by everyone” – Brendan Murphy During a time when we are all experiencing different sides of the global pandemic and separately feeling our own internal struggles; we are united in a collective moment. Art can be important as a universal language and pathway to connection. I believe art has the power to make the world a better place and when things are good or bad, I just want to make beautiful things. It is a constant. I flow like H20. I feel alive when I am making art and it has kept me energized, hopeful and focused on the good. I have been working on some powerful themes of emotion, the power of positivity and color to shift emotional state. The collected works featured the Spaceman series, Chalkboard series, and a few favourites of the Fingerprint series. Humanity expression is important now more than ever. As we are moved inward into our inner space there is an urgency for new understandings about ourselves and the world around us.
Cheryl Wilder http://www.bornwilder.com IG username: N/A Haw RIver, NC USA When schools closed on March 16, I started at-home learning with my two first graders and our family friends’ third grader. I woke up the following Sunday and cried my first deep pandemic cry. For the foreseeable future my creative time and energy would be used to teach three elementary school students. How was I going to write? For certain I knew that I couldn’t work on anything that needed deep focus, like revisions to the final draft of my manuscript. Once I got all the tears out, I did what gets me through every part of life: I picked up my pen and started writing. To have a goal and keep myself in community with others, I decided to write and post a poem a day, no matter how tired I was or how awful the poem. For forty days I wrote poems in cursive on blank sketch paper and took pictures of them to post. From there, I moved onto other projects as my household adjusted to the new norms. Eventually, school ended and I finished the final draft of my first full-length poetry collection and it’s in the hands of my editor. I’m currently getting as much done as possible in preparation for the fall school year.
Eleni Maragkaki
Athens, Greece
URL: https://elenimaragaki.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eleni_maragaki/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eleni.maragkakixiromamou
At the beginning of this period I felt lonely, separated from the rest of the world. However, as this paradoxical state unfolds and takes shape, I realise, that I am talking to the ones I love more than usual and I am occupied with the activities that fulfil me the most. Unable to receive external stimuli, I turn my gaze inwards. I painlessly follow the internal coherence of thought and the inner voice thrives assertive and loud.
As I am now a part of this dystopian story, I seek to find small gaps, through which to escape the situation that traps me. I interpret this abnormal state, as if the virus invites me to depict it from an alternative angle. I could have never predicted that I would fight our world’s new big challenge in my own small confined space.
I feel that everything around me, reveal a society from which the present and future have been reaped. This loss is never complete, but continuously takes form day by day. During this repetitive ritual, time becomes uninterrupted and flat. This extended period of self isolation led to a creative force and an imperative need to structure time and energy.
There is still hope, that we will emerge stronger after this. But this idea itself, quickly begins to resemble an illusion, a way of assuming that humans are something different from what they actually are. Humankind’s obsession with a materialistic civilisation, rather than with a culture based on the timeless values of life, indicates a lack of stability and an uncertain future. In reality, our weakness to understand and appreciate the thoughts and viewpoints of one another is an obstacle, that has proven difficult to overcome.
Gary Vulcano http://www.whitelavameatlart.com IG: hotlava88 Gilbert, AZ USA
Malado Baldwin Los Feliz, CA IG/FB: Malado Francine Web: Maladofrancine.com
Nick Maltagliat San Francisco, CA http://www.nickmaltagliati.com/ @badlycutpasta_studio.
Olga Alexander https://nodescollectionnyc.com IG: nodescollection NYC, N.Y. USA
Name: Sara Camus Instagram: @saracamus Location: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Seraphina Walsh @ph.a.rt Oceanside, CA United States At the beginning of the pandemic, I wasnt feeling any creativity what so ever. But, since also working as an “essential worker” during this time, I was desperate for any ideas so I could have my therapy session through painting. So I started working with fluid art! Its taught me how to let go of everything you cannot control, and takes the stress out of thinking for an idea during a time when nothing is normal. Its become the physical representation of thoughts, emotions, feelings, and everything else I have been feeling but cannot explain, and of everything that Ive wanted to let go of.
Sudatta basu roy chowdhury kolkata, west bengal, India As a woman artist my subjects are always concerned about gender inequality and sexual discrimination in our society. Whereas in this pandemic situation we r facing more disruption in domestic area where we have to not only keep the social distance but mental distance also. Here i am doing some drawings on this psychological state; titled: LIPSTICK UNDER MY MASK. Here i represent some kind of under going psychological discourse of innerself during this pandemic situation. In this picture shown some drawings of that series. Which are done on paper with ink and water colours.
William Hemmerdinger
OPEN CALL (ONGOING)
This is an art studio photo essay.
What are you working on in your studios or homes as you are self distancing? The photo should be of your work within the studio. Not images of artwork. But work in process, on/with the easel, etc.
This also includes poets writers, songwriters. I would love to include your observations during our social distancing.
Send Art and Cake a high res photo or word doc and we will publish a photo essay and your stories/poetry to show how we are staying creative, empowered and artists are sustaining their practice.
THIS is the best time to be an artist. Experiment, play, be inspired.
Submission:
A high resolution photo (1200mp on the longest side) Your name, website, IG username, City/State/Country If you would like to include any text with your image about how you are dealing with the Pandemic, feel free.
If you have been included in our photo essay previously, please wait 6 months to submit again.
ONGOING DEADLINE (WILL PUBLISH A SERIES AS LONG AS IT TAKES)
Email to artandcakela@gmail.com
Please put “Pandemic Photo Essay” in the subject line
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