In this piece I tried to capture the conflicting emotions of staying at home during Covid-19: Feelings of joy at spending more time with family, playing games, etc contrasted with feeling like you get no time to yourself; feeling happy to have so much time to create art or read and feeling bored at times; enjoying having time to cook delicious homemade meals yet being sick of all the dishes or even cooking some times; feeling safe at home but anxious, stressed or sad because of the pandemic. It is a rollercoaster!
My process: After having the idea/inspiration for this piece, I found a shallow box to paint and added a roof. I cut the silouette to fit into the box. Next I selected several colors of patterned scrap book paper that complimented the silouette. I thought about and typed words in colors to match the papers, cut strips of paper and words and glued them together, then curled the paper into ringlets. It was fun to arrange the curls thinking about the colors, patterns, words and placement around the face.
I have my students and teaching to thank for the piece, “Stay at Home.” I have been teaching elementary and adult art classes online and while I talked to them about their work, I would work on a piece myself to keep my hands busy (pictured above). One great thing about being both a practicing artist and a teacher is that both help you improve the other. When I teach I get inspired to do art myself or to try something new and when I create I gain new understandings and new ideas for art lessons. They go hand in hand, each helping me grow and improve at the other.
April Malphurs 