Shelter in PLACE
2020
When the COVID-19 crisis began, I was inspired to create anything that captured my being alive through this time. Then one isolated afternoon in late March, I drew a vignette of my apartment--with my roommate all but chained to his desk in the other room--and I was struck by a strong undercurrent of emotion.
In the beginning it was fun, 2020.
Watercolor marker on envelope
14 x 10 in.
I pictured myself twenty years later looking back on this picture and thus, this moment. I felt nostalgic for my present suffering, and grateful for this record of it. I decided I wanted to offer other people the opportunity to have their moment in history documented while still honoring the evolution of my experience as I try to make art during this time.
Each piece in Shelter in Place unites our separate experiences of "the moment." Your moment is the subject of my moment. Your homespace, my headspace. It is the moment in quarantine when you moved onto your roof AND the moment in quarantine when I moved from pen to ink; paper to toilet paper; inspired to frustrated to bored to inspired again.
Through your subject and my approach, each piece ties together our disconnected experiences and aims to inspire a sense of connection to the intimate moments and individual exchanges that will have built our collective memory of this time.
We binged The Sopranos again, 2020
Watercolor marker on paper
6 x 9 in.
Kelly’s leg was broken, 2020.
Watercolor marker on paper
6 x 9 in.
The florist was furloughed; The bartender, laid off.
Watercolor marker on paper
9 x 6 in.
There was time to play
Watercolor marker on paper
6 x 9 in.
Space to work
Marker and gel pen on paper
9 x 12 in.
City Quiet
Marker on paper
9 x 12 in.
The only event that wasn’t cancelled (was the Pathogen! Festival)
Watercolor marker on paper
9 x 12 in.
Kevin’s parents’ shared their couch
Watercolor and marker on paper
12 x 9 in.
Garrett shared with me his gun
India ink on paper
12 x 9 in.
Our pets didn’t mind (pink and yellow)
India ink and pen
9 x 6 in.
Our pets didn’t mind (blue)
India ink and pen
9 x 6 in.
Our pets didn’t mind (red)
Gel pen on paper
9 x 6 in.
Sometimes I was afraid, 2020
Gel pen on toned paper.
7 x 6 in.
We still ate lox
Pen and marker on toned paper
7 x 6 in.
We paid for art
Gel pen on toned paper
6 x 7 in.
Jess Chi was neat
Felt-tip pen on 2-ply toilet paper
3.75 x 3.75 in.
Jamie’s house looked, as I remembered
India ink on toilet paper
3.75 x 11.25 in.
Certain things became more valuable
India ink on toilet paper
7.5 x 3.75 in.
