Our forty-first post of the series, Artists in the Time of Coronavirus includes Sabina Pierce, Margo Reed, Ekaterina Ermilkina, Bruno Métura, Marilyn MacGregor, Mz. Icar, and Clayton Campbell! 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 300 submissions, so if you haven’t seen yours yet, don’t worry- it is coming, and we can’t wait to post it!]
Sabina Pierce
I’m a photojournalist by nature, so I do what makes me feel safe when everything is so uncertain, I take photos. Being a photographer makes me a natural for self isolating as I love going into nature with my dog, whether its into the woods or to the cherry trees blooming by the river.. I’m not the only one it seems as I’ve found others enjoying the solitude too! Which reminds me we are in this together even if we are alone, we are one.
Margo Reed
As a photojournalist by trade, I often think about the role of photography in either supporting or pushing back against biases.
I believe empathy is endangered due to today’s politically- and technologically-driven world, and it’s important to analyze our relationships beyond biases that usually divide us. Sleep is an immediate connection to our subconscious, a territory we all occupy, and where our most honest, unhinged, emotions lie.
Using the subconscious as a common ground, this series re-creates my own dreams, as well as those that others have shared with me, in photographs. This work explores the human condition on its most universal level, and safeguards notions of empathy to push back against the biases that divide us in the waking world.
Now, because of the world’s pandemic, we hear increasing reports of anxiety-ridden dreams. This documentation aims to find common ground among them, and give closure to those who are haunted by them.
Ekaterina Ermilkina
I cannot remember a time in my life before I was an artist.
Architecture first drew me in and became a subject of my painting while attending graduate school. During my subsequent travels throughout Europe, I was awakened to the history that buildings carry with them, and the way past and present are in dialogue with each other within a structure.
My medium is oil on canvas, and working with color and texture is an ongoing exploration. Modern pointillism has been a revelation for me. Using a palette knife, I apply distinct dots of color and build a pattern, which ultimately is only seen as a pattern when the dots are blended in the eye and mind of the viewer, from a distance.”My website:
http://www.ermilkina.com
Presented in Philadelphia by:
https://www.bluestone-gallery.com/artists/ekaterina-ermilkina/1
Bruno Métura
What path for humanity?
The reality of this global pandemic marches the path of the illusion of life, for some it underlines its magnitude. Fragile for man in appearance or not, we are little at the end of the scale of nature, which regulates itself.
My work proposes a look, where the more or less accidental spots are redefined in space and constantly form the look and perception in the image of Our Mother Nature.
You can approach it from different points of view by turning the works. So let us learn to see things differently.
Bruno Métura
Marilyn MacGregor
The heart of my work is drawing: drawing for me is a kind of dance in which each step opens up new possibilities and allows the ordinary to be seen in a new way. My life-long practice of drawing from first hand observation has taught me to see what is right in front of me, but also to seek out and comprehend the subtleties of form and meaning that lie beneath the surface. The loose, sketchy, spontaneous freedom of my line is the result of many years of drawing life as I find it around me, especially in my travels and in various places where I’ve lived, including Paris, California, and New York.
My Philadelphia and International Series of colorful scenes begin with on-site drawings done with pen, from nearby places, from recent trips, and from my trove of travel sketchbooks accumulated over a life of living and traveling in interesting places. The finished scenes are created with a technique that marries old and new media: ink drawings on paper with freehand digital painting, a medium choice that allows the line to remain clean and primary within a colorful graphic design.
This period of confinement has given me an opening to return to daily drawing, a practice that never gets old, and to appreciate small details of home, family, and the odd bits and pieces that make up my life. More than ever, drawing is my favorite thing to do.
www.macgregor-art.com/philadelphia-art-prints
www.macgregor-art.com
Mz. Icar
We are Mz. Icar. Mz Icar is a loose collective of visual storytellers. We make mixed-media collage/photo-based work that celebrates Women, Blackness and Fun.
These are from our latest nightly jaunts throughout Philadelphia, They are remixes of the Philadelphia Art Museum.
Clayton Campbell
I moved to Philadelphia last August, commuting from Los Angeles for two years where I had been for the past 30 years. It was a big move, but I wanted to be with my partner and I really like this city. I felt that things were happening in Philadelphia in a way that were innovative and entrepreneurial, and that excites me. By March, I was just getting to know people and places a little bit before we went into shut down mode. Before that I was able to write a nice piece about the Tony Conrad exhibit at ICA for Artillery Magazine https://www.artillerymag.com/tony-conrad/, and had some other projects in the works that, like everyone else, are now postponed or cancelled. But I am regrouping and listening to people on-line to get their thoughts. We are in the midst of a major transformation, and it will be challenging.
I continue my practice, which is mainly digital photography, and I’m making new work. Last year much of my art and archives was donated to the University of New Mexico, so I’m using this time to make a series of books that represents my entire output from between 1975 to present… talk about a trip down memory lane! But it is cleansing, refreshing, and occasionally amusing. It did re-affirm that my decision to live life as an artist was a good one. As soon as we can, I am looking forward to being a part of this community. Hang in there everyone!!
