Art Connects Us

It has been twenty-three days since I returned from New York City with my daughter and entered into a period of self-isolation and physical distancing from others.

What I have witnessed in the past few weeks is that art can connect us to one another .... especially in hard times.

Le Vrai Paris, Montmarte (Paris) sketch (Fluid Hot :Press watercolor paper 140 lb)

When I posted my sketch (above) to my Instagram, I did NOT expect to get a message from someone who is living in isolation on the upper floor above the bistro!

Phil Hilfiker is a musician and IMEP co-founder / co-director of the Paris College of Music https://www.imep.pro/en/ and we connected, despite our geographic separation and our COVID-19 self-isolation. And it was art that connected us!

The Llandudno Goats

At the beginning of the COVIDS-19 pandemic, I created a blog post encouraging artists to see the imposed isolation as an artist residency while also acknowledging that many artists might feel blocked and unable to create.

I feel like I was creatively blocked until I discovered that Kashmiri goats had taken over the town of Llandudno, Wales while the people there were staying indoors ("Llandudno goes from Ghost Town to Goat Town"). Every video I saw of the goats, every article I read about them made me laugh SO hard.

It was the first time that I had laughed since March 13th, I wanted to remember it with a quick sketch. This led to many other sketches. My creative block had been cured with laughter.

A Llandudno Kashmiri Goat

COVID-19 Heroes & Sheroes

My next sketch was of Canada's Chief Public Health Officer (CPHO) Dr Theresa Tam who appears on our television sets every day reassuring us, “We need to plank it” and "Physical Distancing is the new Social Distancing"

I've considered trying to do sketches of ALL the provincial health officers and some of the municipal health officers who stand beside the premiers day after day:

"Day after day, premiers have announced new restrictions on Canadians' civil liberties that they say are critical to limiting the spread of COVID-19.

But it is the chief medical officers at their side who provide the science buttressing the calls for sacrifice. Some have become stars in their own right, displaying a kind of televisual bedside manner that combines a reassuring, fact-based approach with occasional levity." (Source: CTV)

Canada's Chief Public Health Officer (CPHO) Dr Theresa Tam

Liminal Space

One of my favourite Canadian artists, Montreal's Holly Friesen has had many of her exhibitions cancelled as well as a month long residency at Pouch Cove, Newfoundland which she had been looking forward to for over a year.

In Holly's most recent newsletter "Art Becomes Essential", she writes,

"At first I was overwhelmed with disappointment, then I experienced a cloak of fear for several days and now I am adapting and marveling and even excited about the potential of this new story. We humans appear to be in a liminal space, a time between the old story and as yet an unknown new story."

I looked up "liminal" and it's an English adjective meaning "on the threshold", from Latin līmen, plural limina. I love the idea of this time being a threshold like so many other thresholds I have walked through before.

I wonder what new stories are being created right now by artist friends everywhere? I wonder what new story I can create with my art practice?

After reading Holly's newsletter, I reached out to my Ottawa urban sketching community and invited them to join me on a virtual sketch walk in Paris.

Virtual Sketch Walks

Thanks to Jason Kottke, I discovered a treasure trove of 4K videos (w/ ambient sound) of long walks through crowded cities, beautiful forests, bustling markets, etc.

The first one I watched was a 1-hour walk in Paris today from Montmartre to Sacré-Coeur. At one point, the walk takes you to an area filled with artists that I absolutely loved. Click on the video below or: https://youtu.be/gz_HbOwLkM0

I paused my iPad early in the walk (around 2:21) and did a quick sketch of Le Vrai Paris.

Ink sketch: Le Vrai Paris, Montmarte

Many others have joined me in this virtual sketch walk and I plan to post others on the Ottawa Urban Sketchers Facebook group.

Watercolour: Le Vrai Paris, Montmarte

Beyond virtual sketch walks, there are more activities I plan to explore as a way of coping with self-isolation, enjoying a change of scenery, and looking for some creative and artistic inspiration.

Virtual Museums 

Google Arts and Culture has partnered with more than 2,500 museums and galleries around the world in order to offer virtual tours and online displays of their collections to internet surfers. (See a Top Ten list here: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/ten-museums-you-can-virtually-visit-180974443/)

For my next virtual sketch walk, I plan to visit Russia's iconic Hermitage Museum and take the 5-hour one-take journey on YouTube that was shot on iPhone 11 Pro. See the video below or visit: https://youtu.be/49YeFsx1rIw 

See also: http://www.openculture.com/2020/03/a-5-hour-one-take-cinematic-journey-through-russias-hermitage-museum-shot-entirely-on-an-iphone.html

Some of the museum scenes on the virtual tour, though highly staged, would make for some great quick sketch studies.

Screenshot: Hermitage museum

Screenshot: Hermitage museum

WebCams 

It also occurred to me that, for all the reasons that I am enjoying virtual walks, and virtual museums, it may be that web cams might offer some respite and inspiration while staying isolated indoors as well.

https://explore.org/livecams

There are many animal live cams to practice sketching as well as a number of ocean, underwater, and zen cams for landscape sketching. I particularly liked the farm sanctuary streams (7) https://explore.org/livecams/farm-sanctuary/sheep-barn-farm-sanctuary.

Decorah, Iowa Eagles Web Cam

 There are a lot of bird cams like the one above of the Decorah, Iowa Eagles Web Cam

Some FREE Art Resources

So many creatives and creative organizations have stepped up and have offered free activities during this time of isolation. Like:

• Free Courses: Urban Sketching:
  If you’ve been wanting to take an urban sketching online course, Greatcoursesplus.com is offering ALL of their courses for FREE for one month!
  The urban sketching course has 32 lessons (15 to 30 minutes each) organized into 5 modules taught by 4 well-known artists:

  (1) Suma CM

  (2) Judith Cassel-Mamet

  (3) Marc Taro Holmes (Montreal Urban Sketcher !)

  (4) Stephanie Bower
  Use the code FREEMO to get your free month.

  (Note: You will have to set up an account and provide credit card information but you can cancel before the next billing date (4/25))
  https://www.thegreatcoursesplus.com/lp/t1/freemo-ca

Some other things that have caught my attention & imagination:

• Keri Smith: If you’re in search of inspiration and/or guidance, the great Keri Smith has returned to online life with a project of daily creative assignments called Exploration of the Day
• BOOM: COVID-19 Crisis Resources for Creatives: A Giant List of Helpful Links for Artists https://www.booooooom.com/2020/03/20/covid-19-resources-for-artists/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=slack
• Guugenheim Art Books (200+) https://archive.org/details/guggenheimmuseum
• John Berger: Ways of Seeing:  A 1972 BBC documentary in 4 parts that eventually led to his book https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pDE4VX_9Kk
• Read Joe Sacco’s “Bitumen or Bust,” a Harrowing Comic on Climate Change https://hyperallergic.com/517519/joe-sacco-bitumen-or-bust-the-best-american-comics-2019/
• The 100 Day Project: Emma Rogan on TedX https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZOwMqxLIn4
• Making A Mark Blog https://makingamark.blogspot.com/

Because this period of COVID-19 self-isolation fell on the heels of my March trip with my daughter to New York City, I thought I would finish this blog post with a one-hour walk in Manhattan in the rain (Link: https://youtu.be/eZe4Q_58UTU).

The saturated colours of the cabs, buildings, pedestrians and lights will be wonderful subject matter for my sketchbook and I hope you enjoy it as well!

Stay Safe