Paintings
"Happy Place" by Emmalee Leinweber
I gave my painting the name Happy Place. At first glance this drawing is of a girl laying on a towel at the beach, but in terms of Covid, there’s more behind it. Most of us are stuck at home right now. We’re wishing we could be somewhere else, doing something else. If we close our eyes, we can imagine we’re in our happy place. This is exactly what is being demonstrated in this painting. I chose to do a painting for this assignment because I wanted to make a happier piece of art rather than a sad, dystopian-like piece of art. I thought a painting about Covid would be easiest to give a happier twist rather than a photograph or a short story. My mom gave me the inspiration of making a happy piece of art regarding the pandemic. We brainstormed together and came up with the idea of going to your happy place and in the end we were both pleased with the final product. I want the audience to take away the idea of this painting. The stress of Covid-19 and self-isolation can be overwhelming at times. When that happens, try taking a moment to close your eyes and imagine yourself in your happy place.
"The Sun Always Rises" by Ciera Vancauteren
I named the painting “The Sun Always Rises”. The reasoning behind this is because, when I started painting this, I wanted to symbolize that even though many days can be a tough time, there will always be a light at the end of the tunnel. The light in this picture is the sun rising. I also like how it connected with the quote in the painting, “Even the darkest nights will end and the sun will rise.” It is one of my favorite quotes to this day. My piece connects to this pandemic because I wanted to show that this is a very tough time for everyone in the world. People getting sick, people starting to struggle with mental illness such as depression and anxiety. I wanted this painting to represent that these bad times won't last forever and soon the sun will rise again. Maybe it will never be the same, but it will always get better. Some people don't really think things can get better, but I wanted this painting and this quote to show that it really can and it will. I wanted to submit a painting because I have always loved to paint ever since I was little and I feel paintings can express more than words ever can. Paintings are just so much fun to do and I wanted to try something different to express how I feel about the pandemic. I got inspired to do this painting because of this quote. I just think it is so powerful and has so much meaning. I wanted to put this quote to real life meaning through a painting. What I hope my audience gets out of this is that bad times don't last forever, even though it may feel like it. It may feel like the world is crashing down, but the light will eventually rise from the darkness, and life will always find a way to get better.
"Shifting" by Ava Ebbutt
I named my painting shifting because it represents how the pandemic changed our lives into a completely different format. I choose to a painting because I have been doing so much online work so it was nice to have a break. I didn’t really have an inspiration other than the prompt. I hope my audience gets something out of it depending on there perspective, I chose abstract because I didn’t want the painting to have any one meaning. The bright warm colors were used to represent the time before corona when things were happy. To follow along with this concept I made the shapes the warm colors where used on to flow together and have a sense of pattern. However I used the gray and black to color over some of the warm colors to represent how the pandemic changed or shadowed over our old life. I chose to only cover a few because I realized that the pandemic hasn’t taken over everything.
"Coded Prints" by Madix Soles
I named it coded prints because the hand is my actual hand print that I outlined and added little drip designs to. The white stripes with the lines, boxes, and dots represent the code. I think my piece relates to the pandemic in multiple ways. It can mean a lot of things depending on who's looking at it. It doesn’t have to be connected just one way. The hand can show how important it is to wash your hands, and the code could mean how the news and/or government isn’t making sense. Or maybe the hand shows how we can’t come in contact with anyone and stay 6ft apart. The code can also show that we’re all going a little crazy being trapped in our houses. I chose a painting because I haven’t really been painting a lot and I like to paint. I haven’t found anything to inspire me or motivate me so it was a little challenging to try and find what to paint. I also had no clue what to write if I were to write a letter to myself. This one girl on instagram who likes to paint. I saw her paint her foot and then she printed it onto a white canvas. I thought it looked cool so I did it with my hand instead because it’s hard to paint my foot. I wanted to do the white stripes because of this other painting. She did it with a sunflower painting and when she took the tape off it looked cool, so I wanted to imply that as well. The code is just for looks so the stripes don’t look blank. I just want others to think it looks good. As I was outlining the hand I started to doubt if it looked good or not. Then I started adding the code and then I thought it looked cool and unique. Also for others to be inspired and not be scared to get their hands dirty.
"The Hermit" by Nina Rhode
I named this art project The Hermit because it is inspired by a particular tarot card which is, in fact, named The Hermit. The reason why I chose to paint a picture is because I haven’t done it in a while, and now that I have an inspiration I can do it. For those who are unaware, tarot is supposedly a common form of divination or ‘magic’. Each card represents a different meaning in life’s journey, but the reader has to find an ‘inner meaning’ for it to be realistic. I don’t spend my time believing in the actual practice (I find believing in the cards is unrealistic), I just find it a fun way to spend time, but the part that I really like is how the major arcana or ‘the major cards’ represent each stage in life. The Hermit is the ninth card of the major arcana, and represents inner guidance and contemplation. It comes right after the card of Strength and The Chariot, which together represent willpower and inner strength. The idea is once someone takes action, they search inside themselves. I think that this is very relevant to quarantine because I think that during this time people are discovering parts of themselves that wouldn’t have showed up in another circumstance. The Hermit is often represented as a cloaked figure holding either a lamp or a glowing staff, and he is always alone in a dark and lonely environment, for it also represents isolation. Since everyone now is forced into isolation to some extent, people are looking inward because what else can they do?
"Staying Together" by Evelyn Sanchez
This painting represents something that I care about deeply and is still happening despite the pandemic we are in. Children being separated from their parents at the border. The children of immigrants are being torn away from their parents and siblings just because they wanted to come to the United States for a better life. There are multiple reasons that immigrants come to the United States and bring their families along with them. They could be fleeing from war, abuse, and fear. But every person has a different story. No person should be separated from their loved ones and be put in cages because they wanted a better future for their children or despite their story for coming here. This piece connects to the pandemic because there are more ICE raids happening because ICE agents know people are home because of being quarantined. It just makes me so sad knowing that even through this pandemic they want to separate more families and cause more sadness and fear upon them. When I saw on twitter videos of ICE raids happening I just knew I had to do something to express my feelings towards it. So I created this painting of an organization that is for abolishing ICE. In the painting you can see two hands held surrounded with a light. One hand is the child’s and the other is the mother’s. This represents staying together as a family and being united. At the bottom of the painting there are also the words “ Keep loved ones together. Stop ICE and border patrol.”
"Draining" by Gabriella Rodriguez (Credit to Miko Maciaszek)
The reason I named this piece “draining” is because there's not only this pandemic that the younger generation is looking at, there's protests going on about “Black lives matter”. This has caught a lot of people's attention throughout the world. We're taking things in and reaching out. The pandemic we’ve all been paying attention too, we're on our phones and we're keeping our eyes out for any new information. The reason there are lines of colors coming out of the humans face, is because it shows that they're taking their energy out on the pandemic. The younger generation has a better understanding of the internet, social media, we're all addicted to our phones, but we know how to use it, we find newer things throughout time.
"Backway" by Audrey Wilkins
The new Title to my piece will be called "Backway". During quarantine, I have had lots of time to myself so I often took my dog, Lefty, on walks trying to find new cool places with nature near me. One day we found a small path that disconnects from the main path, this path ends up leading to my house. I choose to submit this type of response because while there are downsides to quarantine I wanted to find something positive to talk about. I got to spend more time with my older dog which I'm sometimes too busy for, and we got to see something new. I hope the audience can find something new and explore what's around you.