Items

This is a picture of the roots of a large tree, with various rocks and smaller plants poking between them.

2020

Magical Summer!

Because of all the restrictions in place last summer, it was hard to watch all the kids in the neighborhood try and find stuff to keep them occupied and happy. I live next door to three little girls. So one day, when they were not home, I built a small fairy house on the tree between our yards. The girls believed that a fairy had moved in and they couldn't be more excited. Every few days or so I would go and sprinkle glitter around the house so it looked like the fairy was walking around the house. It was so much fun to hear the girls yell in excitement when they saw new glitter or a new addition to the fairy house. It made them and happy and it made me happy. Of course, their parents knew it was me, but to their young imaginations, a real live fairy was living in their yard.

House decorated for Mardi Gras. A white cardboard clock has a pink flamingo in the center and text which reads, "Cuckoo From Covid".

2021-01-29

Coronaland

With Carnival parades cancelled, somebody had the bright idea to start the Krewe of House Floats to (a) make up for it and (b) to possibly offer work to unemployed float artisans. The results have gone beyond everyone's wildest imagination with 5,000+ people signing up in New Orleans, surrounding parishes, and around the world. This is a detail of an installation that shows how many people are feeling these days, “Cuckoo from COVID”

2020-03

Old bear!

All the playgrounds were shut and it was school holidays. The kiddies had only bikes and walks as nothing was open at all during our period of lockdown. A young mother I vaguely knew was walking past one day and I said I was meaning to drag some bears out of the shed and she was so pleased as she was finding it hard to keep her 6 year old entertained. For the next 4 weeks they walked past every day and she sent me a message saying her young daughter was making up stories about Old Bear. In a very small way, Old Bear helped her and the other kiddies who would help out when they saw Old Bear. I felt in a small way we were helping to brighten someone's day.

2020-06-23T17:27

COVID-19: end date unknown A Chronicle in collages

I have created collages for several years now, but living in lockdown as of March 17, 2020 gave this creative outlet a whole new importance in my life. It started as a bit of lark, when a new colleague and I shared with each other that we both had creative outlets. I shared my first COVID-19 collage with her, she shared the painting she had made, and that simple act gave me the impetus to continue using this creative outlet as a way of thinking about my experience of life in lockdown. I learned of your digital archive via an interview on CBC radio’s The Current, and I wrote about it (and similar “witnessing” projects) on my blog (link to blog is live in the attached pdf). I have ten pieces in this “end-date unknown” series; I produced none in May due to a family health crisis, since happily resolved. I returned to it in June, producing what is at the moment the last, though likely not the final, entry. Living in lockdown, with hope, Amanda Le Rougetel Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada June 23, 2020

A girl poses in her costume in front of a tree with "Happy Birthday" banner.

2020-06-10

Molly's Quarantine Performance

Centerville, Utah (June, 2020)- My daughter is a creative soul; she loves to sing, dance and act out her vivid imagination. She loves the theatre and going to summer camp. COVID-19 stopped her from doing that this year. But Molly is resourceful and resilient, and even found opportunity to perform in her Anna costume for all her family at her own birthday party. The arts have a way of making us whole, filling us up with joy and hope; even in the midst of a pandemic. For the little ones, they always find a way back to their imagination and the safety it provides.

A child sitting in a cover made of cardboard boxes.

2020-04-23

Too Many Delivery Boxes Become a Time Machine to Escape COVID-19

My son sits in a time machine he and his sister made out of the influx of delivery boxes that now arrive frequently with social distancing. He instructs guests to the time machine to choose a time "before or after the virus" to visit.