This is a huge understatement, but it has been a very strange year.
More recently, I haven’t really been posting on Facebook and Instagram to make social media space for important conversations regarding the movement for Black lives. But for anyone curious about what I’ve been working on over the past few months, know that I have been making and working on projects, though like all things in quarantine it has been disjointed, occurring in spurts, and not unfolding in the way that anyone might have originally expected. In February of this year, pre-COVID, I attended an incubator artist in residency program with some friends in Mt. Vision, NY that was a really lovely experience. There was snow on the ground, the location was isolated and quiet, and it gave me a chance to take a breath and carve space out of my busy life for creating and reflecting. I also had the chance to tour the Golden Acrylics Factory in NY state, which was super interesting and allowed me to completely nerd out over paints, paint colors, and acrylic media.
Then I went home, and COVID hit the nation like a moving train, and I’ve been trapped in my house since March basically. In a strange way quarantine has extended the introspective headspace that I tapped into during the residency, but on the COVID side of things there are days where I feel more mentally able to create than others. I set up a makeshift studio in my bedroom, since the idea of going into a shared group studio space during quarantine gave me anxiety. I labored over a group of sculptural objects for an eventual installation that I’ve been working on in spurts since 2016 - including handmade Tyvek wallets, fake credit cards, and ceramic keys - which I also worked on during the February residency. And then more recently I started a new collage series, where I’ve been making ink and paint drawings on rice paper, ripping them to pieces, and then reassembling them into abstracted compositions on primed panels. This act of ripping up and reimagining a new image feels appropriate to me right now, since it is energetically aligned with some of the broader cultural conversations that are also unfolding at the moment. On a larger scale, there is much talk of using the giant reflection moment COVID has presented us with as an opportunity to envision a new world and manifest alternate possibilities, on both individual and overarching cultural levels.
I’m really interested and invested in this type of growth, so all of that feels mostly good to me, though there are aspects of COVID that are obviously very challenging and difficult. I’m excited about the collages because they are messier and more unpredictable than the objects I’ve made over the past few years, so they have less of the hyper focus on control that my pieces tend to have. I’ll post images of them once they’re finished, since the portfolio sections of my website are also due for an update. The only other bit of creative news that I have is that a written piece of mine was published in an anthology volume created by the Art Blog, though COVID cancelled the release party that was supposed to accompany it. I had the final publication sent to my parents’ house in the suburbs rather than my own apartment, since pre-COVID I was never home to receive packages, but then I wasn’t able to retrieve the book for several months due to social distancing and quarantine. I know I don’t need to tell you this, but all of this is very 2020 energy (lol).
I’m feeling lots of opposites at the moment - bored yet engaged, scared yet hopeful, growing but also stuck, like time is moving quickly but also slowly. I’m trying to focus on what I can accomplish right now, from the temporary workspace in my bedroom, rather than absences. (Of course, some days this is significantly easier than others - and again, none of this is new information.) I hope that everyone reading this is doing okay, staying well, doing the hard work, upping self care, maybe making something if that feels good to you - and most importantly, I hope that you all continue to conceptualize and fight for a more just, free, and equitable world <3 I miss you!
Xoxo, Bridget