Together apART: Reflections

"In my body of work I paint a round, sometimes fragmented shape to depict the sun or moon in my abstract landscapes. This piece portrays my grounded self - that shape is a light, as something taken in and given out into the world again – what we give out is what we get and vice versa."

"In order to cope with Zoom meeting after Zoom meeting, I sketched the people on the other side of the screen."

"I had recently been given a sewing machine and decided to put it to use one day with the intent to make one patchwork design out of some scraps of African fabric that I had laying around the house."

"COVID-19 is by far the most debilitating illness I have ever had, BUT, in my dawning, my awakening, in the quiet, in the solitude, in the stillness, in the shutdown, it did something magical to my creative brain."

"Combining an old vanity license plate, a beautiful cracked wine bottle, protective crystals and decorative door hardware, I presented what the future could look like...Taken all together, this piece reflects my hope that love can prevail over hate and and that we can all begin to heal."

"It was as if I too was almost physically destroyed after being one of the very first people to contract Covid-19 in White Plains the first week of March 2020...Months later... I decorated this new frame using the original, albeit slightly more damaged fragments that remained beautiful despite their additional imperfections."

"I was drawn to a visceral explorative process by breaking mirrors and composing fragments over collage and paint onto canvas. This insular period provided space to look within, to act boldly and take chances."

"'Once Was' is a photograph taken on the North Salem Bridle trails last year that I recently manipulated to show images of long ago when the trails were full of riders. This ghostly image tells the story of empty trails and missing riders."

"On a recent wintry day off of Shore Park in Pelham, a gaggle of geese swam by the eerie covid-testing tents set up on Glen Island, undisturbed by any of our pandemic anxiety."

"As a mother, this whole year has been a balancing act of trying to keep the kids healthy both physically and mentally. But every decision seems to be choosing one at the expense of the other and one wrong move could cause everything else to come tumbling down."

"When the pandemic started I was in the middle of 5th grade. I missed my friends so much in quarantine, later the school asked for art to fill the empty yearbook pages so I drew us coming together for a picture-something we were longing to do."

The Navy Ship Comfort arrives in New York City

"At the start of the pandemic, I began to take daily walks around my neighborhood with my digital SLR camera. I recorded an image of my surroundings and turned the camera back on myself - two images combined into one frame. Tree branches and empty streetscapes framed, dissolved, and disappeared my face."

"I painted benign botanical pictures on origami boxes. Into each black and white box I placed a Chinese fortune cookie. Traditionally, these hold amusing messages and sayings. Mine hold some of the devastating events of the past year."

"As the days wore on, and the number of deaths grew, I could feel myself retreating into a darker vision of the world. As a photographer, I turned to the creative process that has always allowed me to visually express the emotions that are harder to put into words."

"During the pandemic, our backyard jungle became more essential to my well-being. Occasionally I had photographed family and friends among the comical leaves, a la Brazilian landscape designer, Roberto Burle Marx, but during the pandemic I requested any visitors who stopped at our house to sit for a portrait."

"My Self Portrait was taken the day before my release from White Plains Hospital. It is the portrait of a Covid 19 survivor. Covid 19 took a huge toll on my body and my slow recovery included exercise and walking with my wife at the Rockefeller State Park Preserve."

"I face forward with no face to understand. I have removed myself from the self and left only a general outline of what was there. I am merely an eclipse of light on the surface."

"During the pandemic, I had to come to terms with living alone. In my isolation, I did not feel that I could make it; I was filled with anxiety and despair. One of the things that kept me going was my poetry and art."

"You can tell a lot about a person by their facial expressions. I wanted to explore how much about someone’s personality I could convey without those elements."

"I had been pursuing the frustrating process of searching for an appointment for the vaccine. This portrait, done in early February of 2021 reveals and expresses the anxiety many of us have been feeling during this time."

"My household sorted through all of our old magazines, and created a huge pile to recycle. Of course, I could not let this amazing collage opportunity go to waste. One magazine caught my eye. It was my grandpa’s old favorite: Nautical Quarterly."

"She longs to go outside, but there’s no place to go and no one can see anyone else. So she stays home and dresses up for Instagram, always returning to the window, hoping to see signs of life."

"The viral global pandemic collided with the renewed pandemic of systemic racism in our communities... I continue to document the muscle of dissent so important to protecting our fragile democracy."

"Then, there was the murder of George Floyd. The streets were no longer empty as people came together – mostly masked - to express their outrage. The Black Lives Matter movement was brought forward with renewed attention and action."

"This art quilt was inspired by a photo of my daughter, Cori Chambers. She participated in a peaceful bike protest that traveled through the streets of Brooklyn during the Pandemic Summer of 2020."

"He called for his mama over and over again. She was like a ghost standing next to him. I sobbed while driving home listening to my car radio. It was describing the story of a renegade police officer who continued to press his knee into Floyd’s neck until George passed out and died."

"The composition of the artwork is similar to sojourn around the major Mediterranean trading centers during the late middle ages and early Renaissance. A time of discovery as well as rediscovery of earlier times of great achievement in culture and the arts."

"I sobbed while driving home listening to my car radio... I heard the seven shots fired into Jacob Blake’s back as he tried to enter his SUV."

"I began on a small scale, dying silk cocoons and experimenting with stitching them together. I dyed them with tea, coffee, oak gall, sunflower and walnut inks. Initially to me, the cocoons referenced new life, as well as the remains of a home that has been emptied or abandoned."

"I see my sculpture as snapshots of the mind and soul at a particular point in time. In this time of crisis and isolation, ART can bring us together, remind us that we are not alone, and show how resilient the human spirit can be."

"This collage represents a few of the participating artists that have helped make ART4WELLNESS a thriving creative community during this unprecedented time. I created the middle painting on the 25th week of our live art event. It captures the vibe we experienced each week."