Our second post of the series, Artists in the Time of Coronavirus includes Mirra Goldfrad, Syd Carpenter, Matthew Rose, Louise Millmann, and Linda Dubin Garfield! 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.
Mirra Goldfrad
I earn my living as a barista, so as of now I don’t actually have any income until shops are safe to open back up. In spite of this being an unnerving time financially, I am thankful to have the time to do some reading, writing, and work on ideas. I would like for this to function as a springboard for sharing ideas. If anyone is interested in these images please check out my website: www.mirragoldfrad.com and/ or my instagram @mirra_goldfrad . I look forward to comments and/or inquiries
Syd Carpenter
Mother Pin Afire and Mother Pin Awash. I’m continuing to work on the Mother Pins, a series of mixed media sculptures about my mother, Ernestine, as a ritualized clothes pin. Covid19 has accelerated making more mother pins or at least moving towards finishing up some new ones. I am supposed to open a solo show at the Michener Museum in July. But that may or may not happen with Covid19 lurking about. But still, I spend a lot of time staring at the unfinished ones. They are for me, even more so now.
Matthew Rose
As Paris continues its lockdown and the few people in the streets and grocery stores forage for food and pharmaceutical supplies, I work away here on the fourth floor of my apartment. I am often cutting and pasting, painting and looking, but sometimes just staring out the window at my neighbors wandering terribly quiet streets wearing masks to protect from the virus and chasing their joyfully unaware children as they skate up empty roads on their scooters.
Here is a studio shot taken 20 March 2020 here in Paris. On the right is the first piece I made after my exhibition at the Karuizawa New Art Museum in Japan – Weekend Plans. “Hiroshima, 2020”hangs next to “Birds and Brides” from 2018. I can’t say my days are vastly different from other days inside my studio. It’s the outside world that is completely changed.
The smaller cardboard collage and text work Luxuries Become Necessities was produced for Yvon Lambert’s AIDES exhibition in September. It is a benefit to support those with AIDES. The post-card sized works are hung anonymously (no one will remember this image, I’m sure!) and sold to benefit those suffering from AIDS and support the collective’s actions to help all aspects of fighting AIDS.
It seems as if my work, though perhaps not apparent on the surface, has soaked up the culture of death and in so doing reflects my desire to reflect that and its complicated imact on our lives on the planet.
If you can, support living artists in these difficult times…
Matthew Rose / Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mistahcoughdrop/
[ED Note: Matthew Rose is an Artblog contributor! Read more here.]
Louise Millmann
My work is at a standstill. My thoughts remain very close to me. I am frightened of this silent virus.
[ED Note: Check out this Artblog interview– Louise Millmann’s Working Women & Other Useful Tales by none other than Matthew Rose!]
Linda Dubin Garfield
Linda Dubin Garfield, an award-winning printmaker, went out of her comfort zone to learn a new technique- painting with encaustic wax and pigments. During the critical early stages of the Coronavirus epidemic, she started a series of encaustic paintings of the Coronavirus itself. Finding beauty in the destructive virus, making it into art, helped her cope with the fear and anxiety of dealing with the overwhelming situation. See more of her artwork on her website:
