Moving through the COVID-19 quarantine
Will Trust and Believe
What to do.
Do you feel more pressure to be more creative but also be more helpful?
Do I make more masks or do I make more art - more significant art, too. Just a few masks a day, that’s all I was doing for about 50 days. It was good to feel helpful, but it took more time than I expected it to. The machine occasionally snags, the needle hits a pin and snaps, the tension goes off, the bobbin case fills up with lint. Pressing, washing, etc.
The daily home based cooking and cleaning which I always found somewhat optional before stay-at-home began, now feels extremely important and takes a lot longer. So… I put it off an extra day or five, and why? Because I did such a good job last week. Plus, making time to call everyone, catch up with everyone! everyone! Walks outdoors and socially distanced walks with friends, occasionally. With masks.
Nothing profound. Just commiseration.
Zoom and/or Masks
All work, postponed. All events moving online. All work moving online. Lots and lots of sitting and talking. Showing your art work and getting feedback doesn’t feel the same, it hardly feels like anything but another badly lit zoom box you can barely see. What is the point then? To connect. It helps, but its very very very frustrating and lonely.
When I can’t see another person’s face I just want to get closer than 6 feet - as though I’ll feel how they’re feeling; Is that even rational? I don’t think so. Yet, I tend to do it and have to be pulled back because I can’t train myself. How many days has it been? 70 something?
4 weeks ago I made more than 20 masks. People have donated fabric, money, and exchanged services. Now after more making than 80 masks I think I’ll just make them for family and friends.
Art making keeps going. Exhibits now socially distanced by going online, entirely. With fond memories of art exhibit openings replete with wine, music and noshes… art shows entirely online might sell better? I’m going to start making smaller, denser works. As I read more and more about Nazi Germany and White Supremacy, I think about how much art work was found stored under beds and who knows where else.
Robotics for the summer? I have some ideas. What are you thinking? What are you feeling?
