2020 Hindsight: Instalment 1

Post-Pandemic Posts

Ahhhh, yes, 20-20 hindsight, fitting name for overdue posts and reflections on my art practise during the pandemic.  I know, I know, this post (and the series to follow) is WAYYYYY out of date and over due....by about three + years! YIKES

Sure, I wish I would have posted all these works back in 2020-21 to have included my emotions and what I was experiencing at that time.  However, mentally I just couldn’t, I was outta gas.  I wasn’t thinking of blogging, journalling or sharing my art with the world.  I recall that the idea of doing that felt really selfish and pointless when so many were hurting. Here I was in a place of privilege, feeling relatively safe and secure in my home and work life.  As an ‘essentail-worker’ I did not get any time off.  I was not bored.  Nor was I trapped at home – I was travelling into the city to my office job every day, being social with my co-workers ( 6′ apart) and functioning in a bizarrely surreal environment.  I do remember feeling a lot of fear, unease, resentment and loss of control in the early stages of the pandemic and decided the best way for me to cope with all these negative emotions was to put my creative brain to work solving problems I could enjoy and could control.  So, I enrolled in a few courses at the local university to help me inch toward my Bachelor of Fine Art degree….

Fast forward to 2024 and here I am:  finally finding the time—and feeling inspired enough—to share some of my art experiments done during the Covid Pandemic era.  However, sadly, I am not much closer to the degree.  I am thinking of taking a few Continuing Studies Certificate courses through Emily Carr University of Art & Design this summer so maybe there’s still a chance……???

In this first instalment post I am sharing my small format sculpture piece. It was an assignment for the sculpture component of the STDO 1470 Materials course.  The course consisted of four modules: printmaking, sculpture, painting and photography.  It was delivered via Zoom and was one of four Distance Ed. Studio courses I was able to complete during the lockdowns before UM SOFA discontinued the remote studio offerings and went back to their standard in-person studio delivery.

Our sculpture instructor was Shaun De Rooy and he was fantastic!!  I throughly enjoyed this approach to introducing the group to sculpture as a medium and  our assignment. It was interesting to see and hear both the instructors and students adapt to what was happening in the world and how it affected our ability to create artworks. Delivering courses via Zoom was a new method and I think they did an awesome job of keeping everyone engaged and invested in the ‘studio’ sharing experience when ever possible.  We had breakout rooms and were encouraged to offer critiques and suggestions, ask for thoughts and many new ideas were formed by these interactions.

In fact, all the instructors I was fortunate enough to have during the lockdown periods provided enriching and meaningful spaces to learn in.  I am so happy I jumped at the opportunity when I did.  Each brought their own unique style and approach to delivering the information to us and it was impressive to see a giant organization pivot so quickly and adapt right in front of my eyes. Both the instructors and the students were new to this method and it was uplifting and exhilarating to watch the process evolve. 

All that said, I was really happy with what I was able to create at home during these courses with the very limited materials available to me during the pandemic supply chain issues and uncertain times.     

The materials we were instructed to use for this project were wire, paper and paste. Simple things that all students would be able to find regardless where they were in the world. I’d have to go back and find the assignment, but going from memory we were also limited to a size, I think it was under a square foot….might have even been smaller than that, and we were to keep it abstract\non-representational.

During the creation and once complete we each were required to share to give a short presentation to the class and then to hand in a paper with specific criteria to receive a grade. This part of the assignment required us to take photos from a variety of angles to show off the sculpture’s different views as best we could. After taking the photos I found that the different points of view I captured reminded me of representational things anyway. Kind of like the phenominon of finding things in the clouds, known as pareidolia.

I found it fascinating (and it still kind of gives me chills) that even though this wasn’t created to represent any specific ‘thing’—it was purely born of abstract play with form and line—it became some ‘thing’ in my mind.  I wasn’t trying to create any direct representation of a subject while making it,  but the creative soup of my mind saw so many symbols living in this one 3D form depending on the view point.

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Interconnection, 2021, Wire & Paper, 5.5”x6.5”x7”

I first saw the fish, then the bison and goose and then I could even make out a human figure…..I know it’s a stretch, but it kinda looks like a human doing cartwheels, can you see it!?!?! and then after that I thought of the relationships of each to the classical elements: water, air, earth and fire. Then there’s the relationships of the materials to the elements metal forged from human hands with fire, the paper from trees that grow off from the earth, the water used to make the glue which binds the paper to the metal and the air is captured within the negative spaces around the piece.

I am not sure had set out to make such an object with so many relationships if I would have been nearly this successful. But here it is. I love that part of the intuitive free-flow creative process. That at the beginning I have a completely different idea then where it ends up. The only way to achieve that ‘flow’ state is to let go of control and allow things to happen and then respond, which is a difficult state for me to achieve, but when I finally do get there and am present in it, it is an amazing place.

Anyhoo, enough of that one. I’ll try to add another instalment shortly. The printmaking, painting and photography are still to come!