Thursday July 1 is the launch for the Melbourne Society of Painters and Sculptors special exhibition Covid Creations.
As the website administrator for the society I have been busy putting the show together for the twenty-nine participating members.
The exhibition features an intriguing diverse range of artworks expressing talents of these fine artists.
See the online exhibition here: https://mswps.com.au/covid-creations/
I am showing three works made during 2020.
Here is a glimpse of the accompanying artwork statements:
Walking Tour/No Restrictions
In 2020 for eight months plus, my life had been a whirlwind of emotions and stress, yet a hollow vacuum of lethargy and questioning purpose, of laziness, yet undertaking major sorting programs.
For one hour per day a walk in my 5km neighbourhood, instigated looking at my environment, seeing the changes of the seasons, plants sprouting new shoots, flowers, and colours. Nature has no restrictions.
Encouraged to create prints, I watched copious videos from, across the globe, on a form of printmaking new to me.
I blossomed into a creative functional being who looked forward through a black tunnel to the small light at the end and I have seen it grow larger as I get closer, and the blackness dissipates.
I am moving along with a series of artworks reminiscent of the healing power of nature.
Artwork is currently Framed under Glass
And Our Friends Are All Aboard
Statements such as: We are all in this together and We are all in the same boat were in abundance throughout the media as Australia endeavoured to come to terms with a pandemic that was speeding across the globe. Six weeks earlier, in late January, I left Beijing in a flurry as the city around me was shut down within two days. My solo exhibition at the beginning of March was shut down, after one week and by mid-March Melbourne was in virtual lockdown.
This artwork reflects on the media statements and my questioning that our boats during the pandemic are not all the same. I have borrowed and acknowledge my use of a line from the Beatles song: yellow submarine
Artwork is currently framed.