BURSTING OUT or COMING OUT CAUTIOUSLY?

Bursting Out  (Galaxy Series)   Multi media   36 x 36

It's summer. Vaccines have made a positive difference in COVID statistics. For the vaccinated, major fears of drastic death and total isolation are gone. For all of us, there is a palpable sense of relief. Our world is opening up. Even so, we have to admit, we are still living on the edge of uncertainty.  Delta variant!  A high immunization rate, but deep pockets of non-vaccinated, for whatever reason! And as part of the human race, shouldn't our concerns be with the global situation...India, Africa, Brazil? 

Charts, doctors and our own common sense continue to tell us, "It's not over yet, not completely."  What about the here and now? How do we handle this new apparent freedom? Can we come  BURSTING OUT or  should we maintain our caution? The mere habit of not socializing for such an extended period makes even the socializing we HAD been use to both a welcome and unexpected stressor! Who would have thought? 

Flare 1 mm  8x10
Galaxy Series

Flare 1
(First iteration)

As an artist I think often in images. Coming out cautiously is opening the door a crack, peering around a corner, taking only a small taste, testing the water with a toe, a finger, a foot, a hand.

Bursting out is a flare, an exuberance. We've all experienced it. Sudden inspiration, brilliance of some sort, a creative solution, dancing, hand-clapping joy or, on the dark side, screaming, fist-clenching anger, moaning grief, chilling fear. We use the phrase, "It suddenly hit me!"

Flare 2
(First iteration)

Flare 2 mm 8x10
Galaxy Series

But nothing appears from nothing...there was a before and there is also an after ---to our COVID experiences, to any experience.

Ask an artist or a writer how many stages were between the blank canvas/page and the finished product...the answer may well be, "NOT sure it"s finished!" Some of us count our "iterations," and some of us lose count! Many of us, need "time off," time to digest the situations we are faced with.

Flare 3 multi media 8x10
Galaxy Series

So in life, step leads to step and it is well to accept and work with the transitions. We need both the caution and the bursting out epiphanies. With something as life changing and long lasting as COVID has been, bursting out and cautious steps are part of the continuum. And we should tike the time off, time to digest our situations. As artists of our own lives, this transition into and out of COVID deserves its own analysis...We were, in a sense, forced into contemplation, into habits and situations new to us. As part of our coming out process we need to analyze what we've learned, what "new" habits we want to keep. 

Flare 3 
(First iteration)

What have you discovered through your days of isolation? Did you have any special projects? Did you develop any new habits you want to keep?  new hobbies? interests? epiphanies? What range of emotions did you experience?  Write all about it, in detail. Now...two or three years from now, when this is really over, you'll be glad you did.  Otherwise, these memories and lessons will slip away...We may not cherish them, but we will surprise ourselves with how much we had forgotten, and how much we changed! or didn't!

Vortex 3  (Galaxy Series) multi media   20x16

Vortex (Galaxy Series)
(First iteration)

 

***Paintings were a COVID project. In Oct 2020, I hired a crew to paint my barn roof with that silvery sludge material meant to protect and extend the life of metal roofs. How could I not be enticed by this new material..."First iteration's" show the  material (I conveniently had several canvases with a base coat of black, purple, turquoise. "Bursting Out" was a galaxy painting in it's 4th iteration and I'd turned it to the wall. Gold materials cover the  sludge area that added, before finishing the painting with several golden layers.