Pandemic Experiences through Mixed Media Art
Item
Title
Pandemic Experiences through Mixed Media Art
Description
I think my mixed media artwork expresses multiple angles of my experiences during the pandemic. This work shows interesting and hidden ways about my experiences the past two years. I would encourage the observer to open their mind to depicting symbolic objects with multiple meanings. What I wanted to portray in my mixed media art was how the pandemic has made me feel trapped and unable to share my creativity and potential with others. Mostly this was experienced through my college career being forced to learn online. This was very hard because I am a music major that focuses on performing, communicating, and working with others. Having to learn online and not get the performance opportunities that in normal times the school offers really hindered my ability to be creative and share music with others. In my art work, this is portrayed by the outline of a disposable mask being held back by cloth pins and hindering the flowers to fully grow and show themselves. I wanted to incorporate flowers and objects from nature into this piece because during the pandemic my main outlet to get away from the chaotic world was to be in nature. Being surrounded my flowers, trees, water, and peaceful sounds like birds helped me to process what was happening in the world and decompress. In my artwork, I made the blooming flowers out of disposable masks to show my outlet of being in nature and to also signify that even though the pandemic has been hard, it has still shown beauty in different areas of my life. The flower stems are made of paper from adult coloring books, and I put puzzle pieces around the flowers to show some hobbies I did during the stay-at-home order. I also wanted to incorporate the “6’ apart” advisement as a reminder of the distance people had to stay away from each other for safety and how social distancing impacted my closeness from friends and extended family.
I hope is that future researchers and students can better understand how the pandemic made an impact on many people’s lives and can be seen through multiple primary sources like mine. I want researchers to observe my work as a source that still found hope through the struggles of COVID-19. Although there was a lot of difficult situations through the last two years it is very necessary to have healthy outlets to decompress and find relaxation. My artwork focuses on some of the hobbies I enjoyed like, puzzling, arts and crafts, coloring, and walking in nature to help me mentally get through each day. I think my art shows how much the pandemic can change the normal flow of life into something hard, stressful, or sad. However, one can also find beauty, excitement, and hope in this time. I love that I was able to create a mixed media art piece that has multiple meanings, each significant to me that helps me sum up my experiences during the pandemic.
I hope is that future researchers and students can better understand how the pandemic made an impact on many people’s lives and can be seen through multiple primary sources like mine. I want researchers to observe my work as a source that still found hope through the struggles of COVID-19. Although there was a lot of difficult situations through the last two years it is very necessary to have healthy outlets to decompress and find relaxation. My artwork focuses on some of the hobbies I enjoyed like, puzzling, arts and crafts, coloring, and walking in nature to help me mentally get through each day. I think my art shows how much the pandemic can change the normal flow of life into something hard, stressful, or sad. However, one can also find beauty, excitement, and hope in this time. I love that I was able to create a mixed media art piece that has multiple meanings, each significant to me that helps me sum up my experiences during the pandemic.
Type
Image
Date
February 18, 2022
Coverage
Eau Claire, Wi, 54703, intersection of 1st Ave. and Lake St.
Creator
Victoria Essmann
Contributor
Victoria Essmann
Subject
Home and family
affirmedBy
Yes
This item was submitted on February 24, 2022 by [anonymous user] using the form “Contribute an object” on the site “Western Wisconsin COVID-19 Archive Project”: https://lib02.uwec.edu/Omeka/s/C19
Click here to view the collected data.