Pandemic Portraits 2
I have always been interested in what is seemingly mundane and ‘everyday.’ What we do on a day-to-day basis is unique to us, and what we deem to be significant and insignificant to these routines continues to shift temporarily or perhaps permanently throughout the pandemic. pandemic portraits is an ongoing series of paintings that celebrate seemingly small yet personally significant accomplishments in a time when the question of ‘what constitutes as productivity’ has been heavily and weightily present. Within this pandemic, the pressure to be a certain way has been daunting; the pressure to be productive, to make, to self-care, to connect, to disconnect. But in this unprecedented time, how we should be feeling and what we should be doing has been dismantled.
After weeks of feeling overpowered by the feeling of unproductivity, I woke up one morning and decided to paint a self-portrait; one that would take no more than three hours, and would just be a small accomplishment for the day. I began to talk to other artists in Newfoundland & Labrador, asking them of an accomplishment they have had in this time: something small and perhaps seemingly mundane but important to them. I began to paint their portraits within the same time parameters. The routine and mindful act of quick paintings allows a state of quiet presence within anxiousness.
Pandemic Portraits [has come] out as an artist book in February 2022.; Specifically on the idea of how artists were hit during the pandemic, and what the pressure of productivity felt like on us all.
