the pandemic timeframe was kind of an era all to itself, though i guess the ideas of what i was executing had germinated in the immediate years prior. as early as 2016 i was being called to play with paint and explore abstract often expressionistic styles of painting, though i had no idea what i was doing. the results were often not very interesting or pleasing to me but the process of doing it was fun and cathartic. it’s not that the process of making art had not been fun and therapeutic to me before, but i guess i hadn’t really realized it so much until i started throwing paint around à la jackson pollock.
one of the threads through my creativity for as long as i’ve been doing it has been using motivational, inspirational or otherwise uplifting phrases and themes, like “abundance,” “spread love,” “you are magic,” and others. the pandemic was such a scary time, particularly at first when we really just didn’t understand what was happening and so many people were dying. we were all isolated and out of our usual schedules, untethered. so the combination of my previous explorations into abstract painting merged with my folk art and design sensibilities and my desire to connect with and uplift people. messages like “we are in this together,” “breathe,” and “you are loved” started coming to me – at first on small 6″x6″ canvas board tiles and then later the lotus flower stylized shape became the container for a whole series of paintings.
a lot happened during the pandemic for me beyond the shutdowns, masks and vaccinations. in october of 2020, i had brain surgery to remove a meningioma (benign tumor), which was a major undertaking. i was out of work for three months recuperating and had to return slowly as my body recovered. i was donating a good portion of what i made selling paintings, stickers, and shirts to mutual aid groups to help folks out who hadn’t been able to access pandemic support funds like i had, and when i got a date for brain surgery my family of friends kicked into high gear fundraising for me to cover my time off work and medical bills. the “community is everything” design really hit home for me personally.
then on august 29, 2021, the anniversary of hurricane katrina, hurricane ida hit new orleans head-on as a category 4 storm. i rode it out at home with my cats, including the 10 days after the storm with no power. once again i turned to my designs to raise money for the hardest hit parts of my community, using the “you are loved” shirt via print on demand and was able to donate $500 to a group aiding folks along the coast that were devastated by the storm.
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