I Really Must Go. Baby, It's COVID Outside. Creating Art in the Age of Social Distancing

This seems to be a new reality. At least for the immediate future. Social distancing and self-isolation are new terms in the Canadian, hell, the global lexicon. What does it mean to be an artist during these times?

Does your creative ritual change? Does the process change? For whom do you now create, and do you find you are creating different things? These are a few questions I put to my creative friends. Creatives of all types. I was pleasantly surprised bu the responses I received. Some answered immediately and some took time to process my questions. Regardless of the time each took to answer, all of the responses I received were thoughtful and thought-provoking.

Edits will appear as new creatives add to the post

Has your process changed?

Al Rempel - poet;

"I write poems. Like a lot of artists, I create in isolation, so this aspect of my artistic life hasn’t changed, but art is meant to be shared and this is where the current situation is effecting my writing. Poetry requires conversations, work-shopping, and readings, among other things, and while some of it can be done electronically, there are obvious limitations. For instance, I’ve been part of a “poetry kitchen party” movement that has seen poetry revitalized in people’s homes that can no longer be done."

Lynda Anderson - painter;

I’d say yes, my process has been changed, but not in a negative way. I’m an introvert, so this gives me the time to experiment with new ideas.

Mo Hamilton - painter/block printer;

Before this pandemic, I was working on paintings for an exhibit in May at Island Mountain Arts and I also had some printmaking workshops that I was going to be doing up north but all of these were either canceled or postponed so that sense of urgency to get work completed by a deadline is no longer there.

Has it changed your views on why and who you are creating for?

Michael Kast - photographer/digital artist/Arts North;

Perhaps a bit. Not so much for the why. I am driven to create. I will ask myself who I do this is for, who I create for. Sometimes the answer is "the market", though most of the time I feel like it is for everyone. I need, as an artist, to tell the story, to tell the truth.

Audrey McKinnon - painter;

For the last several months I've been struggling with this existential question around art: why does it matter? Paintings, especially, are just wall decoration. At best, they're an expression of something that links us all -- or maybe a form of communication around a particular issue or a philosophical question even, but why does that matter? We connect with people in so many ways and communicate in so many ways all the time anyway. Why does the world need art to do more of that when we're already so flooded with other people's thoughts, ideas, and perspectives? I'm not a silver lining person -- but the current pandemic and the fallout from it has really shone a light on why the world needs art. Why it needs countless artists producing work that says what many of us are struggling to say or that many of us aren't quite sure we need to say. Others just want to know we're not alone in feeling what we're feeling -- or we just want to know we're not alone. Human connection is suddenly hard to come by right now and the ways in which we are finding it are through our screens. We're running at a deficiency of touch, of three-dimensional connection and we're missing that essential thing about face-to-face human connection -- that intangible feeling you get when you're around someone physically. For me, art is all about expressing the intangible. Here's an opportunity to communicate that thing; that feeling. As an artist, I feel more needed now than I have ever. And I need artists just as much. I'm watching their live streams, feeling their expressions and that connection is helping me get through every day as I try to keep up my end of the conversation with my own expressions. So in short, I'm creating for humanity now. Which sounds really big, but it's what I've always created for: I create with love in my heart for my fellow human beings and the physical world around me.

Mo Hamilton - painter;

Ultimately when I am in my studio I do try to not think about who I am painting for and try to listen to my own intuition and creative voice so I don't think that has changed much.

Al Rempel - poet;

I don’t think I’ve changed who or why I’m writing poetry, but like climate change, there is a sense of urgency - art and literature can give hope, it can be a vehicle for healing, it can help cultures understand each other better, and it can record and remind people about the present. Art can be a mirror for a person or a society, reflecting what is good and what needs to be changed.

Has this changed WHAT you are creating?

Britt Meierhofer - musician/record producer

With everything social pivoting to screens, I find myself burnt out on it and resisting digital mediums to focus on tactile work. I was planning on mixing down some old demos, but instead, I've been reaching for my guitar and reconfiguring my electric rig, and have even been picking up my acoustic guitar on the regular. I've been focussing on my electric set up for the past year or so, so it's been nice to revisit playing on the acoustic. Self-isolating (and the varied reflections and feelings that have accompanied it) has also provided the inspiration and space to write new material. With the newfound abundance of time, I've also had the opportunity to haul out my old paints and canvasses, a hobby which has been a treat to dig in to again.

Lynda Anderson - painter;

Yes, I notice I’m using more colour, watching online art group ideas. When I get frustrated, I make bread, a creative process itself, and deliver to my friend's doorknobs.

Danny Bell - musician/music promoter;

I've been working on music quite a bit with all this time on my hands. Most of the new tunes I've been writing in isolation seem to be about the isolation or weird end of the world scenarios. I really have tried to stay away from this, but it always winds up going that route right now. This thing is sort of all-consuming. I've been trying to balance that with some humour though.

Michael Kast - photographer/digital artist/Arts North

Yes, how can it not? My stuff if I do any at all these days, is darker. Not the colours or the intensity but the subject matter.

And many, such as

Erin Stagg - painter/ Artist in Residence for Community Arts Council of Prince George & District aka; Studio 2880;

Everything, everything seems to have come to a halt.