Isolation during novel coronavirus (Covid-19) has become inspiration to artists around the world. Through art, St. Mary’s Dominican High School students in teacher Angelle Caffery’s Art I, Art III, and Art II Honors classes, expressed their personal experiences of living in a pandemic.
“I think it is important for the students to reflect and creatively deal with the feelings and frustrations they may be feeling at this time,” said Caffery.
For this project assignment, the students incorporated a range of media, including watercolors, sketches, collages, and photography. Many of them wrote reflections about their work. The following is a sampling of some of their artwork.
NOLA.COM ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTING SEVERAL DOMINICAN STUDENTS
Faith Bass, Junior
Idea: Use art to represent how COVID-19 is affecting my life.
Materials: I used colored pencil and acrylic paint on drawing paper.
Process: Drawing/painting: Shadows and color. I painted the background filled with the COVID-19 virus and drew myself in a bubble. Size: 11″ x 14″
Grace Beard, Junior
Idea: Express a lack of human touch and a feeling of loneliness caused by the Corona pandemic through space, line, and color.
Materials: Oil Pastels, Acrylic Paint, Pastel Paper, Toothbrush.
Process: I collected pictures of both me and my boyfriend’s hand and sketched them onto oil pastel paper. Then I colored the hands, the body, the hair, and black background with oil pastel. Next, I used a toothbrush to splatter a star pattern in acrylic paint. Then I cut out the hands, glued them, and outlined two hourglasses in white oil pastel. Size: 18 x 12
Alexis Favalora, Senior
Idea: Represent how the coronavirus has affected me.
Materials: Medical mask and watercolor paint.
Process: First, I thought about how the virus was affecting me. . . by opening my eyes on how I can make a change to stopping the spread. Then I got to work. First, I did the base coats, then I drew the eye with pencil and the words and painted it.
Abigail Gaubert, Sophomore
Idea: I wanted to show what has been going on in the world lately and what I have been doing. I put four different bubbles that all represent different things.
Materials: 9×11 cardboard. The background is news articles; the face and bubbles are on cardstock. I printed pictures and collaged them for the bubbles around the face. I drew and painted the face.
Process: The top right bubble is front line workers, healthcare workers, and other essential workers. The bottom right bubble is what I’ve been doing in quarantine. I have pictures of me with my family, schoolwork, sleeping, working out, and my phone. The bottom left are the news and government workers. Lastly, the top left I have pictures of me and my friends who I can’t see during quarantine, and softball, since my season was canceled.
Kaylee Gele, Junior
Idea: I am trying to express how I feel like I am in a box because of staying home and how I am barely able to go out and all that surrounds me is hearing about COVID-19.
Process: I used words that I typed out and cut them and I used pieces of cardboard to create the box I feel like I am in.
Materials: I used newspaper and shoe box as my paper and cardboard for my box.
Carrie Madden, Junior
Idea: I wanted to create a piece that represents my current lifestyle.
Process: I drew hands with cleaning products to symbolize COVID- 19 and its effect on everyone. Because of this quarantine, I have been able to do many of my favorite childhood activities without stressing as much on school. I drew a little girl (to symbolize myself) playing in a puddle because I have been trying to find some “light” during this difficult time.
Materials: Watercolor paper, acrylic paint.
Julia Pittman, Senior
Idea, Materials, Process: I created to do a girl (me) in a chair looking out the window (filled with a collage of things she would see happening in the world around her), with a computer (filled with a collage of headlines, updates, news, stats, etc. that we see on the internet) in front of her, and either a thinking bubble (filled with a collage of things that represent what I will miss with having to be in quarantine).
Sara Sciortino, Junior
Idea: Use photography to make a statement about feeling trapped during COVID-19.
Materials: Nikon camera, PicsArt, VSCO.
Process: Overlap two photos in photoshop, add a vignette, and adjust light settings. Size: 2134 x 1600.
Josephine Toso, Junior
Idea: Due to recent events, we are told to stay inside and social distance to prevent the spread of the Coronavirus. My goal for this piece was to show the importance of doing those things, and if we continue to do so it will eventually flatten the curve. In the background, I listed the main facts about the virus as well as events canceled because of it. In the bottom left corner, a vaccine key is shown to symbolize the “key” to ending this quarantine.
Materials: 6B pencils, thin Sharpie, and Shuttle Art Permanent markers. Size: 9×12.
Process: First, I roughly sketched the house, chain, and key. After outlining it in thin Sharpie, I colored in the house with markers and shaded the chain and key with 6B pencils. Finally, I drew in the background in the red marker.
Julia West, Senior
Idea: I wanted to demonstrate what this pandemic has done to my senior year as well as the rest of my class. It has ruined so many memories that were supposed to be made, and I won’t ever be able to make them the same way. It took me away from the sisterhood I had created with these girls for 5 years. It took away the school I call home, and I won’t be able to experience my final moments as a senior with the Dominican family I love dearly. It also took me away from the class I loved the most and the teacher that truly made my year.
Materials: I use my iPhone X camera, and to edit the picture I used everyone’s famous app VSCO.
Process: The process was difficult because I had to force everyone to get dressed. No one wanted to, of course. I also had to get my Mawmaw to take the picture, and that was an entire process in itself.
