Vlado Nedkov (New York, NY), "My greatest contribution as an interior designer has been to show people how to use bold color mixtures, use patterned carpets, light rooms, and mix old with new", 2020, acrylic and wax on birch panel, 24" Dia x 1/2"D, $1,000. Being in self-isolation for nearly 8 weeks now has made me appreciate the built environment even more than before, since willingly or not we are now confined to it. I have focused on this body of work as a way to bring joy to myself in a situation that often seems fluid and hopeless. By manipulating images of beautiful interiors, reducing them to their predominant hues, and abstracting them from reality, I’ve been creating circular paintings in saturated color that exude optimism and help me feel less bleak.
Vlado Nedkov (New York, NY), "Naïve Geometries VIII, 2020, acrylic on Arches Aquarelle paper, 7" x 10" (9" x 12" sheet), $300. Conversely, this piece depicts an imagined reality, a place that doesn’t really exist but one I can travel to through the process of painting it, which is the only way to escape right now. While also part of a series of work, I’ve found myself gravitating toward more color, contrast, and a jolt of energy in my work, in order to combat each day melting into the next, and getting stuck in a rut.
Emily Berger (San Marcos, Texas), "Columnar Basalt", brass, cast bronze, NFS My experience during COVID-19 has included many ups and downs. I've become more stressed about money, motivation and determination. I've realized I crave human interaction more than I thought I did. I miss exploring outside and enjoying the beauty in the natural world. This piece is dedicated to memories of traveling with my family as a child. These are rock formations found in photos from these times. I hope we can create these valuable experiences again soon.
Ryan Napier (Thornton, CO), "Self Portrait 1", mixed media, NFS. I've had a lot of time to think in the last several weeks, which, on top of having a birthday in quarantine, has proven to aid the onset of a bout of depression. The piece is not particularly dark because it portrays in part, a hope of what my life might become, along with what few positive elements I do see at the moment. It is also about polarity, duality. I have given myself the freedom to explore, indulging in a wider variety of facets of my life and character. There are elements of the double-edgedness of medicine and healing, pulling from imagery of brain scans and mental health.
Ryan Napier (Thornton, CO), "Self Portrait 1", mixed media, NFS. I've had a lot of time to think in the last several weeks, which, on top of having a birthday in quarantine, has proven to aid the onset of a bout of depression. The piece is not particularly dark because it portrays in part, a hope of what my life might become, along with what few positive elements I do see at the moment. It is also about polarity, duality. I have given myself the freedom to explore, indulging in a wider variety of facets of my life and character. There are elements of the double-edgedness of medicine and healing, pulling from imagery of brain scans and mental health.
Joe Bussell (Kansas, City Kansas), "Frag", medical
supplies, found plastic, handmade sheets of plastic, and rope, NFS. Prophylaxis and the current
pandemic are the focus of this work. The little blue sculpture and its sad "condom" and the orange piece with its "quill of arrows" look as if both are ready to go into battle.
Joe Bussell (Kansas, City Kansas), "Frag 2", medical
supplies, found plastic, handmade sheets of plastic, and rope, NFS. Prophylaxis and the current
pandemic are the focus of this work. The little blue sculpture and its sad "condom" and the orange piece with its "quill of arrows" look as if both are ready to go into battle.
Anand Manchiraju (Bridgeville, PA), "YELLOW ABSTRACT", OIL ON CANVAS, 30x40", $3500. I spend my quarantine mornings sitting on my favorite yellow loveseat waiting for blossom and hope. I want to hope. I hope that every human can hope for a fresh and clear future. Now, when everyone got some time to stand and stare, lets brush away the paleness with our positivity. I look forward for bright future filled with happiness, but a few permanent scars caused by COVID-19 that we can never ignore.
Jessica Dehen (
Fort Lauderdale,Florida) "Algae Bloom", fluid acrylics, dry pastel and oil pigment stick on canvas, 37 3/4 in. by 48 3/4 in., 2020.
Sam Kelly (Dayton, OH), Turbulence #2, acrylic on paper, NFS. This is a very confusing and turbulent time for me. I feel as though I am spiraling out of control. A state of normalcy has been replaced by panic, isolation, fear, and uncertainty. I tried to express these feelings in my work.
Sam Kelly (Dayton, OH), Turbulence #1, acrylic on paper, NFS. This is a very confusing and turbulent time for me. I feel as though I am spiraling out of control. A state of normalcy has been replaced by panic, isolation, fear, and uncertainty. I tried to express these feelings in my work.
Haley Johnston (Chico, CA), "Reflection of a Window Prism", Watercolor, NFS During these scary times, I have taken this as an opportunity to self-reflect. For this piece, I didn’t look outside my window for inspiration, but rather the prism hanging in the window. In the late afternoon, I happened upon its reflection on the wall, and I was stunned by what a perfect circle it was. This image is what inspired me to create this piece on not looking outward into the chaos, but inward into myself. Seeing this perfect circle reflected from this prism made me realize that when one truly focuses on self-reflection, one can be truly centered.
Anand Manchiraju (Bridgeville, PA), "FROM A WINDOW", acrylic on canvas, 27x30", $2000. COVID-19 days... I am spending time sitting on my yellow loveseat and looking outside from a window. I see pale present and the deep dark homes. While most of the world see this paleness as a new normal or #quarantinelife, for many other homes it's a deeper scar. Now after almost two months, I am still sitting on my yellow loveseat and waiting for blossom and hope.
Kelly Witte (Racine, Wisconsin), "In Full Bloom", acrylic on canvas, 20" x 20", NFS. Surprisingly I am handling the isolation better than I imagined. I am slowly adjusting to the "new normal" and easing into a new and strange way of life. Slowing down has given me extra time to think and has allowed me to reassess what is actually important to me. My painting In Full Bloom depicts a vibrant, but imaginary scene exploding with tropical flowers. Even though we are all facing difficulties I wish that everyone could find something to be positive about or grateful for. My hope is that someday soon things will be cheerful and joyous again.
Adele Etcheverry-Sheets (Durham, CA), "Helping Hands Give Hope", acrylic, 18” x 24”, $400. There are thousands of hands that, at their own risk, take on numerous tasks to help the people’s of the world during the COVID-19 pandemic. These hands don’t ask about political affiliations, race, sexual or religious orientation. They see the human. I look through one of my windows as we shelter-in-home, my media window. I appreciate the special people who have one global goal to keep humans safe. We all contribute to this with our own way with time, giving, support and our compliance to requests that we keep others and ourselves safe. If it is in our power to do this, we do it. It is not a bother it is compassion for humans. My painting is a salute to all of our helping hands and the hope they give.
Lucas Lazarre (Connecticut, US), "Mutumbo Big Blockers", mixed media, NFS. To make a twenty two year long story short, I decided to reprogram myself at the beginning of this year (Jan. 27). I recognized that holding the outside world responsible for my emotions was not working for me. As a result, I decided to focus my energy towards my LIFE; language, intentions, frequencies and experimentation. Instead of affirming myself as a victim to this current pandemic, I have chosen to address it as opportunity to prosper in times of war and long suffering, both internal and external.
Kelly Witte (Racine, Wisconsin), "In Full Bloom, Acrylic on Canvas, 20" x 20", NFS. Surprisingly I am handling the isolation better than I imagined. I am slowly adjusting to the "new normal" and easing into a new and strange way of life. Slowing down has given me extra time to think and has allowed me to reassess what is actually important to me. My painting In Full Bloom depicts a vibrant, but imaginary scene exploding with tropical flowers. Even though we are all facing difficulties I wish that everyone could find something to be positive about or grateful for. My hope is that someday soon things will be cheerful and joyous again.
Merel Galestian (Amsterdam, Holland), "Longing for Nature", Photography, NFS. Longing for Nature' is a photo from the photo series 'Quarantine'. After sitting in quarantine for a while, you start to long for the outside world. As an artist, I long to be able to go outside again. I long for the woods, I even long for a tropical jungle where you find all kinds of animals in the wild.
In this work, you see a hallway of an Amsterdam apartment, containing my imagined tropical jungle. But I didn’t depict real animals. The animals I photographed are wooden souvenirs and some come from a painting or from a pillowcase. They are not real, but they become alive in this image.
With my photography, I want to capture my own inner world just like a painting. I used several images and merged them with Photoshop. I was inspired by Chagall's dreamy paintings full of his personal stories. With painting, you do not capture reality, but your own interpretation. In the paintings of Chagall, it does not matter what is above or under. That is why in my photograph 'Longing for Nature', the panther does not walk on the ground, but on the sides of the frame. I experiment in my photography by approaching objects just like in a painting. Herewith I explore the boundaries of photography. In my work, I try to build a bridge between reality and imagination.
Merel Galestian (Amsterdam, Holland), "Restless Patience", photography, NFS. "Restless Patience" is a photo from the photo series 'Quarantine'. The corona crisis seems to be endless. When you gaze through the window, you believe the corona is floating into the air. The outside world seems to be dangerous. The world is restlessly waiting behind the window to connect again. When comes the time we can live without the fear that someone might infect you?
The clock upside down symbolises the time that may not return and the unknown times that will come. I expressed the restlessness that I experience in the collective world, by using dynamic patterns and powerful colours, especially red in the living room. The red colour in 'Restless Patience' stands for crisis, impatience, restlessness but also for moving forward and changes.
I approached this photograph as a painting. I used several photos and merged them with Photoshop. I was inspired by Chagall's painting 'Paris through the window'. Chagall made this painting when he was just living in Paris and was too shy to show himself. Anxiety is reversed now. The fear from the inside world now comes from the outside world.
Jessica Dehen (Fort Lauderdale, FL), "Violet Sonata", fluid acrylics, dry pastel and oil pigment stick on canvas, 37 3/4" x 48 3/4 ", NFS. Void of content and nonobjective in style, I create, explore and negotiate complicated relationships between formal aesthetic elements that are constantly in flux as the work is ‘becoming’. As coexisting visual tensions and harmonies emerge through the painting process, I respond to them intuitively, allowing these formal interactions to codetermine their own evolutionary path within and suggestively beyond the four sides of the canvas. I parallel the progression of my paintings to that of a slow-forming ecosystem in that they begin with large, gestural forms that will eventually evolve into more complicated interactive spaces, where intuitive marks and complex forms are then given the opportunity to either propagate or perish. I approach my paintings with full-bodied brushstrokes and hand-poured stains of acrylic paint that are applied solely for foundational purposes. The evolution of the painting occurs through supplemental layering of translucent colors, meanwhile smaller, fleeting marks engage with its’ forming environment. Scrawled lines are drawn into the surface with oil sticks, dry pastel, or smaller brushes while rags, spray bottles, and my own hands wipe them away, leaving only the remnants of their existence. What remains is an almost topographical visual history for the viewer to now interact with. My highly saturated color palette is inherently inspired by my subtropical South Florida upbringing, which in turn has undeniably impacted the intensity at which I perceive color, as well as my preference to integrate vibrant color relationships into my work. The viewer is not obligated to name the personal thoughts, memories, attachments or sensations that my work elicits, but rather find solace and a sense of self in being a part of a shared visual experience.
Lauren Jones (Somerville, MA), "Aiteall", mixed media, original print, 20" x 16" , $80. Days feel blurred, but there are moments of crispness. This work comes about as a result of feelings of wandering within a home. There is a fear and appreciation of the outside, and even from inside, it looks more vibrant and colorful. There is an emotional mix of vibrancy and bleakness, which feels odd. It is taking time to accept this mixture as okay.
TEAYOUN KIM-KASSOR (MILLEDGEVILLE, GA), "Miura & Kumo", fabric and dye, 19” x 14”, NFS. Shibori-zome techniques require to generate intense physical tensions during the process.
The visual illustration and physiological tension of aesthetic display express the many tensions surrounding us with the current condition of forced isolation.
My layers of work reflects on the notion of connection and disconnection.
TEAYOUN KIM-KASSOR (MILLEDGEVILLE, GA), "Itajime & Hotaru", fabric and dye, 40” x 7”, NFS. Shibori-zome techniques require to generate intense physical tensions during the process.
The visual illustration and physiological tension of aesthetic display express the many tensions surrounding us with the current condition of forced isolation.
My layers of work reflects on the notion of connection and disconnection.
Lucas Lazarre (Connecticut, US), "Untitled", NFS. The Biggest Threat to America is Us" When it comes to holding space for people to understand themselves while interacting with my art, I have come to recognize that I value the relationship that other people have with it because your experience can be completely different from my mine. In some ways, I view my pieces as my kids because they can interact with people. In addition to that, each piece is like a time capsule, reminding me what I was thinking or experiencing at the time. I value that so much, so I make sure I don't impose my relationship with my pieces on you.
Judy Kane ( Chico, CA), "Somewhere Else I", oil stick, 6 x 8”, $25. As I thought about looking out a window Somewhere Else, I imagined a small inn, a gentle breeze and a long afternoon.
Golda Disc Eigo ( New York, NY)
The Gathering, collage of wood, photos, pigment ink, 24in x 18in, $1000
Golda Disc Eigo ( New York, NY) Social Distancing, collage on wood, paper, photos, pigment ink, 24in x 12in, $800 NYC is a particularly difficult place to keep a social distance which can lead to humorous dances as we try to maintain a 6 feet space. Our whole idea of space has been redefined. While it has been difficult there are absurdly funny moments as we all circle around each other, trying to find our markings to stand on in stores so that we maintain safety. What was once unthinkable is starting to feel scarily normal. My collage Social Distancing was created with all of these wacky rhythms in mind that we go through each day as we try to avoid each other, not in animosity but of necessity.
Judy Kane (Chico, CA), "Little Life", Acrylic monoprint and watercolor crayon, 10” x 12” $45. As we stand still, stay in, the environment surges back. A life we can’t imagine is thriving as soon as we close the door.
Nancy Kennedy (Chico, CA), "Transformation", mixed media, NFS. Can kindness and love transform a virus?
Judy Kane (Chico, CA), "Somewhere Else II", oil stick, 6 x 8”, $35. As I imagined being Somewhere Else a little later, shadows had lengthened and I felt a little more serious about everything.
Edward-Victor Sanchez (Vega Alta, Puerto Rico), "Encierro en el Encierro/ Confinement Within a Confinement", photograph, 12" x 10", $175. As this unique period of time unfolded, with the notion that enclosed, surrounded, confined, within these walls I was safer; while my body was inside, I let my mind and my art wonder free, “outside”. Upon their return I painted landscapes, sunrises and sunsets and I felt physically free as well…
As the Puerto Rican lockdown advanced (40+ days), the paintings became a cathartic exercise or a metaphor of what I was feeling.
I reduced the color palette, after all I couldn’t see that much; I painted outside the under-painting, after all everything was feeling kind of monochromatic; I cover the images with gridded papers, after all the landscape felt trapped and obstructed; and photographed the paintings under the shadows created by the windows of my living room, after all, that was my new reality…"
Jessica Dehen (Fort Lauderdale, FL), "Algae Bloom", fluid acrylics, dry pastel and oil pigment stick on canvas, 37 3/4" x 48 3/4", NFS. My work is my escape right now. Being in my first year of graduate school in pursuit of my MFA in Painting, I envisioned "big things" for my work that are now temporarily being put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic and my university being temporarily shut down. I am limited in not only my access to various on-campus materials, but now also being limited in the scale that I am able to work on from my small apartment home. The circumstances are frustrating and painting has been my release. I have been both bold and aggressive in the handling of my materials and the process itself has been extremely cathartic. My enthusiastic use of bright colors are reminiscent of my South Floridian sub-tropical surroundings that I am missing dearly from the four white walls of my apartment. This vivid colors are what bring me joy on these long, quiet, and isolated days at home.
Jessica Dehen (Fort Lauderdale, FL), "Violet Sonata", fluid acrylics, dry pastel and oil pigment stick on canvas, 37 3/4"x 48 3/4", NFS. My work is my escape right now. Being in my first year of graduate school in pursuit of my MFA in Painting, I envisioned "big things" for my work that are now temporarily being put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic and my university being temporarily shut down. I am limited in not only my access to various on-campus materials, but now also being limited in the scale that I am able to work on from my small apartment home. The circumstances are frustrating and painting has been my release. I have been both bold and aggressive in the handling of my materials and the process itself has been extremely cathartic. My enthusiastic use of bright colors are reminiscent of my South Floridian sub-tropical surroundings that I am missing dearly from the four white walls of my apartment. This vivid colors are what bring me joy on these long, quiet, and isolated days at home.
