On March 13th 2020, the decision to send students home was announced after it was revealed that a Union College staff member tested positive for COVID-19. And, just like that, all of the student body was uprooted and the seniors who contributed to this exhibition were all scattered to the wind. We all landed somewhere different; some not too far from campus. Others landed in different states or different countries. Suddenly, with only a few months before our graduation, everything we had planned for this exhibition was uncertain. How surreal a feeling it was to have all that hard work wrested from you. Many of us left campus feeling frustrated and disappointed. We were all devastated when the decision to have spring term completely online was made. Any hope to have a physical in-person senior art thesis exhibition, before we graduated at least, was crushed. Our final term at Union College was meant to be something special and now… for better or worse… it is unforgettable.

I cannot speak to everyone’s experience but for me the change has been difficult. What we lost due to the pandemic, it feels monumental; and the uncertainty and unrest that was left in its place is gut-wrenching. Even weeks after the initial decision to send students home, it feels as if we are standing on uneven ground. We wait with bated breath for the world to upturn itself once more before the dust has even settled. We are afraid to commit to any plans; the future is too uncertain to even begin to maneuver yet. However, we continue to produce art and we try to move forward in this time of uncertainty. Art has always been a way to process and express in times of uncertainty. This is when artists rise to the occasion. History books will remember what actually happened, but artists will depict what we felt, what we lost, and what we need to remember. For many, this disruption to our normal creative practice has become some kind of catalyst and zeitgeist as we all reevaluate how we make art. We’re relearning how to make art after experiencing the world upturned. Our globalization and interconnectivity have become our greatest vulnerability. Things are changing and subconsciously we are making different creative decisions as a reaction to our shared experience. And, despite having been spread apart and isolated, many of us are arriving in similar places with our art. Together our artwork shows a snippet of time and, holistically, our images speak for us and we are having a conversation. We speak of the lonely figure staring at a screen, displacement, anxiety, dreams and disease. Our imagery is personal; but our narrative is shared.

-Kate Blow, Class of 2020