Item

Fighting Creative Blocks During Quarentine

Title (Dublin Core)

Fighting Creative Blocks During Quarentine

Description (Dublin Core)

Of course the pandemic hit everyone's motivation and zest for daily life pretty hard, but as an artist whose social circles are mainly comprised of other artists, I noticed an especially hard hit to the creative output of my peers. I've heard before that suffering and despair is supposed to bring out the best artists have to offer, but in reality the inverse is often true- Van Gogh painted the Starry Night while he was getting specialized care in a mental health facility, after all. It's hard to find your spark when it feels like the world is caving in on all sides, but I was determined to find a way to keep myself from falling into a months long creative drought I knew I'd find myself in if I didn't do something about it. I didn't have the energy or desire to touch full sized pieces, but I reasoned with myself that I could stand to go smaller scale to save on both energy and time without sacrificing the feeling of accomplishment that comes with a finished piece, and so the day before every non-essential business in town shut down, I ran to my local Michael's and picked up the cheapest acrylic paints I could find and 3 packs of six 2 inch square canvases. I tried to think of a subject that could easily be captured on such a small surface, but was also sure to spark joy in myself and perhaps others if i chose to share them, and landed on the topic of pets, since they were easily one of the biggest comforts for myself and everyone else I knew during our prolonged stints sitting at home. It was a good move, I think- looking at an an image of an animal for long periods of time never hurts your mood, and sharing photos of the finished paintings with my friends who own the animals pictured brought a boost of serotonin to both parties involved. More than one person suggested I start an etsy page and sell them, but I think I'm content to just let them be a quarantine hobby and act of kindness during a deeply depressing time.

Date (Dublin Core)

March 19, 2020

Creator (Dublin Core)

Allison Wait

Contributor (Dublin Core)

Allison Wait

Event Identifier (Dublin Core)

HST580

Partner (Dublin Core)

Arizona State University

Type (Dublin Core)

Photos of 2'x2' canvases, painted by me.

Controlled Vocabulary (Dublin Core)

English Animals
English Art & Design
English Emotion
English Social Distance

Curator's Tags (Omeka Classic)

motivation
artist
mental health
depression
creativity
painting
acrylic paint
canvas
joy
animal
friend
serotonin
hobby
kindness
Toledo
Ohio
pet

Contributor's Tags (a true folksonomy) (Friend of a Friend)

Ohio
Toledo
painting
pastime
pet
art

Collection (Dublin Core)

Pandemic Pets

Linked Data (Dublin Core)

HST 580 Professional Experience/Archives course

Date Submitted (Dublin Core)

9/1/2020

Date Modified (Dublin Core)

9/5/2020
10/24/2020
07/01/2021
08/02/2022
09/24/2024

Date Created (Dublin Core)

03/19/2020

Item sets

Covid 19
Arizona State University

This item was submitted on September 1, 2020 by Allison Wait using the form “Share Your Story” on the site “A Journal of the Plague Year”: https://www.covid-19archive.org/s/archive

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