Our seventeenth post of the series, Artists in the Time of Coronavirus, includes Christopher Sweeney, Juli Snyder, Tom McCloskey, Sophie Miller, Cory Neale, and Kelly Nichols! Thank you for all who submitted! And if you want to participate, send your statement (250 words max) and 2 photos to support@theartblog.org. More details here. Stay safe and stay positive, and come back in the days to come for more “Artists in the Time of Coronavirus.” We have a wonderful community and are so proud of being able to share everyone’s art.
[Note: We have gotten over 200 submissions, so if you haven’t seen yours yet, don’t worry- it is coming, and we can’t wait to post it!]
Christopher Sweeney
During this troubling time, the focus of my work has been 3D printing face shields and fabricating them to give to local doctors and nurses (https://budmen.com). The other thing I have been doing is using 3D prints using sacred geometry to make relief prints using a 3D printed press, called the OpenPress Project (https://openpressproject.com)
then coding lights for use with them. This is done with digital fabrication using a program called Morphi (http://morphiapp.com). I also have been creating augmented reality with my artwork. I am using virtual designs to make relief prints, as well as virtual works.
Chris Sweeney
Twitter: @csweeneyartist
IG: @sweeney2400
https://www.sweeneyartist.com
Juli Snyder
Insta: @black.arrow.arts
Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/pages/category/Artist/Black-Arrow-Arts-130797187120465/
website: www.blackarrowarts.comStatement: My name is Juli (Jule) Snyder and I’m a West Philly based abstract artist. I also manage a Wine & Spirits store here in the city. My art is a mirror of life. It’s vibrant, dynamic and distinctive; my style is always evolving. Emotion and the subconscious are my main sources of inspiration and it’s important that I’m as transparent as possible during the creative process. Honesty creates connection.
A few days ago I was inspired to do something totally different creatively. While walking down my street I was thinking of all the young kids who were being kept inside and I had an emotional reaction to all the rainbows I saw; taped to the inside of house windows, drawn in pastel chalk on sidewalks. I really wanted to do something for the kids that might make them a little happier. I remembered I had many small circular pieces of wood that I’d previously bought but never used, and the idea came to me of painting rainbows on them, turning them into magnets and leaving them at the houses where the kids lived. I remembered seeing somewhere online pictures of colorfully painted rocks, so I started painting rocks and a brick as well.
I’m greatly looking forward to leaving the rainbow rocks and rainbow magnets for the kids to find. It has always been important to me to make a positive impact on the world.
Tom McCloskey
The two pieces I submitted are my most recent work and were created during the current Covid-19 pandemic. I normally don’t have a concept or a specific idea when I begin drawing a piece, and I certainly was not trying to comment about the Coronavirus. But after creating these pieces, and looking at them it’s hard not to associate them to our current global crisis. The Covid-19 pandemic certainly has me worried about my family, my friends, and my community’s uncertain future. It would be hard for these concerns not to be expressed in my paintings. The one thing I can say, is that there are extraordinary people out there who risk their own lives to help others. This gives me hope, and inspires me to be a better human being.
Instagram page: tom_mccloskey_art
Sophie Miller
After being laid off from my restaurant job, I found myself with all the time to focus on my artwork. In this way, quarantine has been a quiet blessing. Being a recent graduate from the University of the Arts, I have been trying over the past months to strike a balance between having security financially from outside work, and pouring myself into creating art, my passion and ultimately preferred career path. Now, with my income eliminated I have to find a way for my work to be prosperous.
At this time, I am exploring contemporary cartography. This is an ongoing project from which I have found many points of connection to culture and societal conditions. Maps are a way of democratizing data. We no longer map just geographic location, but we are mapping businesses, societal changes, and as of recent- mapping the coronavirus in its progression across the globe. While being physically isolated, mapping allows connection- and the accessibility of mapping on digital platforms will only become more prevalent. I see endless potential in creative adaptations of digital mapping, and hope it helps us consider what it means to be connected.
You can see more of my work on my website: https://sophiesmiller.com/
or on my instagram: @sophie_slotin
Cory Neale
I have always been fascinated by the city, it’s scale, and qualities of light and shadow. From my days as a City Hall foot courier in Philadelphia to my present job as an architect, I have always found myself at the intersections, no pun intended, of art and city life, and the potential and kinetic energy. Conditions permitting (and sometimes not so much), I draw and paint on site, to capture the energy and character of spaces in the moment. When I can’t indulge myself with sitting at an intersection or plaza and painting, I try to find similar qualities in everyday items, continuing my practice into a routine I call Still Life Night Life. This entails starting a painting after 10pm, and finishing it the same night. Those moments are like a laboratory, studying the medium of watercolor, failing and learning to improve the more performative live painting and drawing practice on the streets of Philadelphia. Watercolor is the perfect medium for these practices. Although a bit unforgiving, it can do a lot of work FOR you, creating happy accidents to be left alone, or a drop of color that presents a perfect representation of shadow, or the transparency of glass, or space.
My instagram is https://www.instagram.com/corynealevision/
Kelly Nichols
I’ve always loved being in my house, but suddenly the inability to leave it has really changed how I see things. These last two pieces were created in the wake of the Corona virus, and I can already see a lot of ways my style has evolved. I suddenly want to add a lot more life and texture to the subjects I’m working on to make up for the things I can’t see outside. It’s great to see that people can still make bright and colorful creations even when things are looking bleak.
Handle
@Kidnichols
