Belgin Yucelen
Title: Quarantine Diaries – 23 Creators 10 Countries
YouTube video: LpgJv0uI1ng
Website: belginyucelen.com
Instagram: belginyucelenartist
Boulder, CO, USA

“Quarantine Diaries – 23 Creators 10 Countries” is a short documentary film allowing us to step into artist studios who keep creating during the time of this pandemic that shifted our realities. Belgin Yucelen, a multimedia artist in Boulder, CO hopes that her film will be a recording of these humbling times so we can remember the perceived slowness that seems to create more considerate individuals.

Amy Dyck
Title: Collective
Medium: Oil on Cradled Board
Dimensions: 44″ diameter
Website: amyjdyck.com
Instagram: amyjdyckartist
Langley, BC

This painting is a reflection on how each of us have individual experiences of life, and how these individual experiences effects relationship within our communities.

Two people the same age who live in the same community can have drastically different experiences of life because of the significant (though often invisible) impact gender, race, privilege, awareness, and felt experience has on everyone. Likewise, siblings, even twins (the artist is a twin), will have a surprisingly varied experience of their same upbringing. So, even though we are interconnected, in families, classes, workplaces, and neighbourhoods, because our life experiences are so vastly different, we are also completely alone.

Ironically, this fundamental experience of being completely alone also unifies us into a joint experience of togetherness. We are, in a way, a collective of people who are separately together. And the more we recognize this, the more effort we can put into hearing each other’s stories, growing in empathy and compassion, and building a more respectful, connected community.

Roseann Janzen
Title:  Cats with Hats
Medium:  acrylic on canvas
Dimensions:  18×24″
Website:  rajanzen.com

What can I say! I like cats and isolation jump-starts the imagination.

Jerry Radwick
Title: Invisible Death Covid-19
YouTube video: youtu.be/NAtStOZ12aU
Website: jerryradwick.com
Instagram: JerryRadwick
Montréal

I made this song and video to talk about about all the changes that we’ve been going through and the hardships we’ve been facing in our daily lives due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Kenneth Andreys
Title: SECRET MESSAGE
Medium: Card Stock: 16 PT., 215 LB., C2S Gloss Cover
Dimensions: 5″ X 7″
Website:kennethandreys.com
Instagram: kennethandreys
Chicago, IL. USA

When I started this project, it was just to correspond with family and friends in an amusing way that addressed the current global situation. Because I wanted to send a personal message to each recipient, I decided that a postcard would be ideal to use for this project; not to mention I would design it to my own specifications. There is something magical about the written word and the intimacy that it conveys; let’s not forget as well the nostalgia because who really corresponds like this anymore?

Over time the project has grown from a correspondence for a handful of people, to a printed postcard sent to now over 100 recipients in 12 states and 9 countries. In the end I hope I was able to give everyone a smile, a challenge, and a reminder that even in a global pandemic we will prevail.

Bodhi Drope
Title: The new greetings method
Medium: Digital photo

We final get to renew our old friendship after months of isolation but not with hugs! Elbow to elbow!

Marilyn Marshall
Title: Self in the Time of Covid
Medium: Painting executed July 2020
Dimensions: 12″ x 24″

The pandemic has led me to reflect on myself as a part of a global community and on the fact that fear is a universal experience.

Florence Van den Berg
Title: Compassion
Medium: Oil on prepared board
Dimensions: 58cm x 48cm
Sesfontein, Benoni, South Africa

I am from South Africa, saw the photo on a photographic page on Fb, asked the photographer, Albert Acosta from Cuba, permission to use the image, and I started the painting at the beginning of our Lockdown. A challenge, as I have only been painting for four years. A tribute to the front line workers.

Francois Emond
Title: Rendez-vous au temps du coronavirus
Medium: Pastel, ink, watercolor
Dimensions: 18 inches X 23 inches
Website: behance.net/francoisemond
Montreal

The impact of coronavirus seen through humor. A date for a very careful couple.

Kimberly Schols
Title: Thank You Stones For Essential Workers During Covid
YouTube video: https://youtu.be/kQt1UoZ9vjk
Oakville, Ontario

A Thank You During Covid

A Thank You
A simple Thank You
What more can a heart shed
When shuddering behind a door.

A Thank You
An earnest Thank You
What else can be as holy meant
When sheltering in innocence and need.

A Thank You
A heart made Thank You
To doctors
To nurses
To care workers
To transit workers
To farmers
To journalists
To fire fighters
To respiratory therapists
To police
To grocery workers
To pharmacists
To sanitation workers
To utility workers
To truckers
To delivery workers
To flight crews
To seasonal workers
To armed forces
To postal workers
To scientists
To paramedics
To counsellors
To the RCMP and
To the many, many unnamed others.

Thank You

Jane Richardson
Title: Piobaireachd
Medium: acrylic
Dimensions: 48″x48″
Website: leighdon.ca

As a bagpiper, I spent a lot of time working on my music during the pandemic of 2020. “Piobaireachd”, also called “Ceol mor”, is the classical  form of Highland bagpipe music. This painting is my abstract impression of this ancient form of music – an expression of the complexity, the beauty, and my struggle with the music.  The Piobaireachd that inspired this painting is “Glengarry’s Lament”. Perhaps I will play it for you one day.

Enjoy.

Judith Elsasser
Title: Steph
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Dimensions: 18 x 24 inches
Website: elsasserstudio.com
Guelph, Ontario

This portrait is of Steph a butcher who works at Market Fresh, Gueph, Ontario.  The portrait is the first of a series I plan to paint; the subject being the wonderful people who are in the service industry, still working and haven’t stopped.

Elaine Hunter
Title: Winter 2
Medium: Photography
Website: elainehunter.com
Instagram: elainehunterphotography1

An old barn surviving the harsh Canadian Winters.

Daniela Lucato
Title: My name is Sami
YouTube video: youtu.be/7oGJW8DjBJo
Website: the-dots.com/users/daniela-lucato
Instagram: daniela.lucato
Berlin, Germany

This video was made during lockdown and finished on 25th April 2020. It is a reflection about domestic violence, human rights and woman condition in all countries. I was inspired by a personal involvement: an old friend I met by chance after a long time told me the abuse she was victim of from her husband. She thought it was painful but she accepted it as a normal condition. I was shocked and I told her she needed to contact the police. I thought about this short talk we had for a long time. I really think the way she accepted this abuse, thinking it was normal, is a huge issue for many women.

This is something that needs to be changed. This topic is for me really important and the work “My name is Sami” is a studio for a bigger project. I feel a responsibility as a woman artist to make people think about it, to confront themselves with this item.

I don’t know if it will help to resolve the problem, but this is a start to fight it.

Makiko Kitama
Title: Tula the Queen of Social Distancing
YouTube video:
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 8″x10″
Website: makiko.ca
Instagram: makikokitama

More time at home painting one of my best friend “Tula” the tuxedo cat.

Arina Gordienko
Title: Woman and Shadow
Medium: Charcoal, Oil and Gesso on canvas
Dimensions: 180 cm x 110 cm
Website: arina-gordienko.com
Instagram: arina_gordienko_art
United Kingdom

This painting is inspired by Picasso’s ‘The Absinthe Drinker’. In alcohol can be found an escape from reality for a while but it is only illusion, an illusion of finding ephemeral peace of mind from insanity in another insanity as ephemeral as illusion itself is. During this worldly disaster we are all in a position of finding our own escape from the unstable reality, a place where we are safe from anxiety, fear and hopeless thoughts. This can be your home, or relationship with your loved one and family, or even your pets who love you whatever is happening in the outer world. This can be books, where you can choose from thousands of waiting for you worlds to explore each of them and find your perfect shelter. You can escape into new knowledge and your personal fascinating discoveries in those books. For artists it can be work, just daily work when you are face to face with your creation and find yourself in your own inner world, and it actually is the last resort or shelter that is always with you no matter what.

Alanna Wood
Title: Covid recycled
Medium: Collaged envelopes and coloured pens
Dimensions: 8 x6 inches
Instagram: alannawoodart

I wanted to make this invisible virus visible.

Cherry Archer
Title: Covid-19 Solitary Dining
Medium: Photography
Instagram: cherry_archer

With the declaration of the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent shutting of society, feelings of confusion, vulnerability, uncertainty, and maybe even panic set upon the community. Finding myself in a situation of zero income, recent recovery from what was likely a mild version of the flu itself, and quarantined, I was keenly aware of these same feelings welling up within me.

Interwoven with the news cycles, which I had been listening to on continuous stream, were experts offering listicles for coping. “Set a routine”, they said. “Get dressed. Practice self care”, they coaxed.

Covid-19 Solitary Dining is my ongoing photo series response. Daily I cook a single serving meal and photograph it.

Throughout the process I found myself reflecting on how, although I was alone in cooking, in dining, in quarantine, we are all going through different versions of the same uncomfortable upheaval…and in that I find comfort.

Nan Mause San Hom
Title: Why¿
Medium: Procreate
Instagram: ravena_ambros
Delta

Why¿

Bodhi Drope
Title: Bod chiropractic treatment during the pandemic
YouTube video: youtu.be/770xi3zo0eQ

An example of the new norm during social distancing while  receiving a chiropractic treatment.

André van der Westhuizen
Title: Lock down-Packed, all dressed up and nowhere to go.
Dimensions: 30 inches x 20 inches
City: Johannesburg, South Africa

A painting done, depicting current moments of frustration under lock down rules.

Alan Sirulnikoff
Title: The Tattered States of America
Website: sirulnikoff.ca

sickness, pain, suffering, grief and yet there is more…
Change will come.

Evelyn Sloboda
Title: Uncertain Times
Medium: acrylic
Dimensions: 24 x 12″
Website: evelynsloboda.ca
Instagram: evelynsloboda

As an artist and an introvert, quiet time alone isn’t that unusual for me. However, with the Covid-19 threat, I’ve found myself experiencing increased anxiety, stress and fear. Underlying it all is, I think, the uncertainty of existence.

Like everyone, I have missed the connections with family and friends.  And, I am very grateful for the things that do help – nature, the ocean, gardening, meditation, and painting. This piece came out of an invitation to reflect on “the days of quiet” of the past few months.  It was part of an excellent online course I purchased, “Paint Yourself Free” with Joan Fullerton.

David Emerson Hall
Title: How we frame our world
Medium: acrylic on canvas
Dimensions: 30 x 40
Website: davidehall.ca

Framing
Structuring a problem or issue to gain the most support from your audience. The problem posed should reflect the attitude and beliefs of your listeners

David Emerson Hall
Title: Tatting a pandemic
Medium: giclee on aluminum
Dimensions: 12″x12″
Website: davidehall.ca

This idea came from Stuart Pearson Wrights portrait of Prince Philip. He painted a blue bottle fly on his body as a metaphor for death.

Hiroshi Atobe
Title: Masked Up Fascination
Medium: Graphic
Dimensions: 210x232mm
City: Kyoto, Japan

We are all masked up and nice looking, our smiling faces like flowers are lost. So I make imitation flowers with complex masks.

Hiroshi Atobe
Title: The Scene We Never Viewed
Medium: Mixed Media
Dimensions: 282x404mm
City: Kyoto, Japan

We humans like to be enthusiastic to predict the future. But such prediction has no insurance for coming true.

Ines Tancré
Title: Ines Tancré the silence of shadows
Medium: Photography – mixed media on canvas
Dimensions: 36″ x 36″
Website: tancre.com
Instagram: inestancre

Living, thinking, perceiving between opposites…

Jody Franklin
Title: The Quarantine Baby – And How He Grew
Medium: digital collage on canvas
Website: orcaspod.ca

“The Quarantine Baby – And How He Grew” is a digital photo of an analog collage on canvas (24×20) of digital photo collages of analog drawings and paintings by Jody Franklin.

Ellen Kathleen Hayes
Title: Dinner Date
Medium: Digital Illustration
Dimensions: 3.25″ x 6.5″
Website: ellenkhayes.com
Instagram: heyellenk
City: Toronto, ON, Canada

I try to make sure I walk outside for at least a bit of time everyday for my physical and mental health. Other days, I’ll lay out on the front lawn watching people mill by. Frequently, I’ll see people spending time with each other with significant physical distance between them – and I’ve since gone on similar dates myself. It’s interesting that expressing care and affection for someone now looks like keeping an appropriate distance, wearing a mask, and above all, not touching!

David Emerson Hall
Title: impression of Howe Sound from Gibsons
acrylic on board
Dimensions: 6×12
Website: davidehall.ca

The inspiration for this painting came from looking through colours at spatters here in Gibsons. The sky is called Blue Mascari and spoke to me of a renaissance sky. I used it directly from the sample container with my other colours to express my  sense of what feels like to live here and look 40 kilometers in Howe Sound.

Mudito Drope
Title: Pileated Woodpecker
Medium: Field Sketch/Study

As I continue to work on my nature journal, I am grateful that, at this time of isolation and fear of contagion, I am “alive in the present moment, held in the arms of nature”. I am able to appreciate ever more the garden and its occupants. As well as learning more about the birds that I know and love. As the journaling course is over, I have signed up for another online course, Hand Lettering, to keep me interested and occupied. This page is the first where I have used that new skill.

Taya Docksteader
Title: Newborns of any species wait for no one
Medium: Photography

No matter if there is a pandemic, babies are born. Small deserted creatures need care, love and affection. Joy is found and given anywhere….no matter if there is a pandemic.

Valerie A Durant
Title: Lifeline
Medium: photography
Dimensions: 12″ x 18″
Website: valeriedurant.ca
Instagram: valeriedurantvancouver

Dolphin Lifeline.
Everything is turned about
The sky below
The sea above
The rope, the lifeline provides some hope
The curls, the swirls, which one to grab.
While one brings life, the others dont
with clarity and strength my mind stays strong
I reach and hold till early dawn
they will come, I trust
when all seems lost
I know it true, my breath prevails
They find me safe, but I am dust
Another day, to rest  then sail

Ashleigh Alexandria
Title: The Virgin Artiste
Medium: Body Paint photography
Website: www.virginarte.com
Instagram: thevirginartiste
Brooklyn, NY, USA

Artist Ashleigh Alexandria uses body paint and imagery to provoke emotion/reaction to the current times. In this image her subject is camouflaged to show feelings of invisibility in a world that is now forever changed.

Charly Mithrush
Title: Collected Wisdom
Medium: Encaustic & mixed media
Dimensions: 6″ x 6″
Website: charlymithrushart.com
Instagram: charlymithrushart

I often put words or hidden images in my work, its adds to the story of the painting. Collective wisdom, also called group wisdom and co-intelligence is shared knowledge or a shared decision process arrived at by individuals and groups. “While political leaders have locked their borders, scientists have been shattering theirs, creating a global collaboration unlike any in history. Never before, researchers say, have so many experts in so many countries focused simultaneously on a single topic and with such urgency. Nearly all other research has ground to a halt.” (from the NY Times) So as we find our way through this strange and uncertain time we as a community also share our collective wisdom. Helping and supporting each other as best we can. Keep being kind, patient, understanding and observant of others. Mother nature is taking a deep breath and so must we all.

Laurie McConnell
Title: #Super Isolator Howl for Frontline Workers
YouTube video: youtu.be/4ybFRCCVlK8

On March 13th my partner had to head to Alberta to care for her ailing mother. As the days went by I felt adrift and lonesome. I wasn’t ready to ride my motorcycle yet as we didn’t know how bad the ERs would get in BC but I thought my gear was excellent for social distancing, and I had a silver cape I added SI to and decided to create some performance art out of it. The unicorn on my helmet matches one on my jacket and on my bike, a non-binary Scottish unicorn named Aon-adharcach.

Alison Taylor
Title: Being Apart Together
YouTube video:
Medium: Alcohol Ink on Yupo Paper
Dimensions: 9 x 12 inches
Website: alisonjtaylor.com
Instagram: alisontaylorbc

This painting is made with alcohol ink and 90% rubbing alcohol. Since the pandemic started, my alcohol has been “off limits” for artwork, as we couldn’t buy hand sanitizer for my husband to take to work on construction sites, or even alcohol so we could make our own hand sanitizer (mixed with aloe vera gel). But this week he was able to buy some sanitizer, so I get to use my alcohol for art again. I was looking at the painting, trying to come up with a name for it, and the passage of hot pink seemed to be keeping the green/blue apart. So I have called it “Being Apart Together”: a theme I expect we’ll be seeing a lot of in artists’ work these days.

Mary Winn
Title: Beyond The Curve
Medium: Fused glass
Dimensions: 14L X 10W X13H

This piece speaks to the resiliency of people to rise above the challenges we face.

Sarinah Haba
Title: be kind
Medium: mixed
Dimensions: 9x16inches
Website: sarinahhaba.com
Instagram: sarinah.paint

Started as a sketch of a bee keeper

Sue Hall
Title: Slow Down In 2020
Medium: Photo Collage

On today’s walk I came upon signs that reminded
me to Slow Down, Be Kind, Be Safe and maintain
a sense of humour.

Ashley Sager
Title: Covid-19 Shopping Protocols
Medium: Photograph

Friendly reminder provided to all before shopping.

Nan Mause San Hom
Medium: Procreate ( oil brush )
Dimensions: 1280×720 px
Instagram: ravena_ambros
Delta

I miss the ocean. The feeling of wet sand underneath my feet, the scent of ocean breeze and the sound of wave crashing.

Ashley Sager
Title: Public Gratitude #1
Medium: Photograph

Roadside expression of Gratitude for
Essential Workers during Covid-19.
Location, Gower Point Road near Secret Beach.

Ashley Sager
Title: Public Gratitude #2
Medium: Photograph

Roadside expression of Gratitude for
Essential Workers during Covid-19.
Location, Chaster Road.

Ashley Sager
Title: Public Gratitude #3
Medium: Photograph

Roadside expression of Gratitude for
Essential Workers during Covid-19.
Location, corner of Veterans and Fitchett Roads

Tzaddi Gordon
Title: A Conflagration
Mixed Media (Blackout Poetry Collage)
Dimensions: 4.75″x7.25″
Website: tzaddimade.com
Instagram: tzaddimade

I skim a vintage book page for words that somehow connect, and my blackout poems reveal themselves.
Sometimes they are funny, sometimes touching, other times they are commentary on our world.
This one revealed itself while many of us were adjusting to our new restrictions, grieving the early
losses of the pandemic, and anticipating the losses to come.
This one revealed itself while many of us were adjusting to our new restrictions, grieving the early losses of the pandemic, and anticipating the losses to come.

Sue Hall
Title: My Journey Through Covid 19
Medium: Photo Collage

These are photographs taken on my daily two hour walk during the covid-19 pandemic with David. I have been deeply touched by the kindness and warmth of neighbours. The humour and creativity is a daily reminder that I am truly fortunate to call the Sunshine Coast my home. The sight and sweet fragrance of spring, opportunities taken for gardening and building, we are taking time to breathe and renew. When eyes are wide open one sees the inequality of life and struggle. There is pain and sorrow amongst us. May we always keep our eyes, ears, sense of smell and hearts open.

Signy Bjarnason
Title: In My Circle
Medium: ink, paper
Dimensions: 9×12
Instagram: trivial_significa

Thankful to have this guy in my covid-19 circle.

COVID-19 VIRTUAL EXHIBITION

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