Items

• 
  2022-07-21

  SMhopes and the Big Blue Bus

  Through a grant from the City of Santa Monica Cultural Affairs Department program, Art of Recovery, artist Paula Goldman designed five banners based on uploads to the project call page on this website, SMhopes: an Archive of Hopes and Dreams. The banners will run on Santa Monica's Big Blue Bus transit system for the month of July, 2022.
• 
  2022-05-22

  Republican logic

  This is an Instagram post from feministhood. It is making the comparison between the rhetoric Republicans have had regarding COVID versus abortion. The person writing this says thinks that it is rather contradictory. The contradiction comes from thinking that "my body, my choice" applies to masks and vaccines, but should not apply to abortion. The commonality is that both issues deal with bodily autonomy.
• 
  2022-05-28

  My parents worry about the psychological implications of our masks

  This is an Instagram post by tat2luvgirl37. This is a political comic referencing both school shootings and mask wearing. The comic artist is trying to create irony where the parents of one of the kids seems to worry more about mask wearing rather than gun protection. The mask versus no-mask camp is highly partisan, with the no-maskers typically being Republican in the United States, and the pro-maskers being Democrat. Additionally, the Republican party is overall viewed as being more-pro gun, which some critics say is the reason why mass shootings happen more often. As we can see by the #voteblue used by the person that reposted this comic, it is very politically charged and meant to be criticism against those that are pro-gun and anti-mask.
• 
  2020-03

  Good With My Hands

  I've always used my hands to shape the world around me. Working with my hands both soothes and stimulates, and it feels good to be productive. I've long been known at work for crocheting or cross stitching (my hands can work at those with little help from my eyes) during boring meetings, as a way to keep myself awake and render fruitful an otherwise pointless meeting. I have some very talented hands, if I do say so myself. I make jewelry, I quilt, I cosplay (itself honestly probably 10 or so different skillsets), I etch glass, embroider, play deftly with resin, string art, and perler beads. You name it, these very talented hands of mine can probably do it. If they can't, someone on Youtube will show me and I will figure it out. My hands are always busy. At least they used to be. COVID took that from me. When quarantine hit, that is what was left to me. So that is what I did. Fortunately, crafters are notorious hoarders, so that was one thing I struggled little to find when the shelves at all the stores were bare. Whatever it was, it was already in my craft room. When you couldn't find masks anywhere, me and my loved ones never had to worry. I sewed probably 100 from the leftovers I had from a few of my quilts, fun masks with swirling DNA strands, dinosaurs, and Bat-signals. When we couldn't get toilet paper and mom my had to mail me some from out of state, I sent her a giant cross-stitch of her favorite character (Snoopy) as a thank you for being my toilet paper hero. I didn't stop there though. I had to make videos daily for the kids in my (now) virtual classes. So I went from being the women who crocheted in meetings, to the one who painted herself to look like different characters during meetings. (The first student to comment with who I was dresses as that day only had to do half the day's assignment.) The other meeting participants would periodically make me turn my camera on to check on the progress of my transformation. Crafting was really the only thing left to me, what with lockdowns, my school going virtual, the inability to access basic necessities, and the persistent taboo on leaving the house. Crafting got me through it. I made so many things, simply because I needed to be doing something. I sewed, mod podged, and wire wrapped, papier mached, and glass painted, until every wall and surface in my home (and some in my classroom) were covered. Often I'd have the TV on in the background so I'd have noise for company. I'd craft into the wee hours, because it's not like I could go anywhere in the morning. It got so bad that my housemate (a dear friend and fellow transplant with no family in Arizona, we moved in together a week before COVID struck because neither of us wanted to live alone) Kristen had to stage a crafting intervention of the "No really, we are out of space. For the love of God, knock it off or get an Etsy store" variety. (I then switched to baking because I don't know how to be if my hands are still. I was accused instead of trying to make her fat.) I crafted until I ran out of things to craft. Thanks to COVID, I squished a lifetimes worth of crafting into a year. Now I'm out of projects. If I wanted it, I made it already. If anyone compliments something I made it is given immediately as a gift to them, so I can then go make myself a new one and my talented hands can be busy again for a minute. I've taken to cross-stitching random things my friends say, just to have something tactile to do. My hands remain as sharp as ever, poised for the next project, but the brain that fired them has run out of steam. And I still don't know how to be if my hands are still.
• 
  2020-12-10

  ‘Songbird’ Review: ‘The Purge’ Meets the Pandemic in Hollywood’s Awful First Attempt at a COVID Movie

  This is a review of the movie "Songbird". I watched it when it came out, closer to the start of the Covid pandemic and my partner reminded me of it recently. This review does a much better job at summarizing the issues of the film. It was so bad, not even from a movie and writing standpoint, but it just felt incredibly way to soon to create and release something that feels almost mocking of the pandemic. Big thumbs down.
• 
  2022-04-12

  VAP and SMhopes #30

  I wish that in the future I would have a trillion dollars; I wish the animal the Phoenix would still exist; I wish I had a gingerbread house; I wish I had another cat.
• 
  2022-04-12

  VAP and SMhopes #29

  I hope the future has more nature, and animals can talk. (The bulldozer is tearing down buildings, and the animals are attacking, to make more room for nature.)
• 
  2022-04-12

  VAP and SMhopes #28

  Help the Earth! We want Covid to end! Stop littering! Stop fires! Stop capturing animals! Stop wasting! Stop cutting trees!
• 
  2022-04-12

  VAP and SMhopes #27

  I hope I will have a house that can make dinosaurs and more trees, and no fire.
• 
  2022-04-12

  VAP and SMhopes #26

  I hope the world turns to chocolate and I hope the world is eatable.
• 
  2022-04-12

  VAP and SMhopes #25

  There will be shoes with fire shooting out of them in the future.
• 
  2022-04-12

  VAP and SMhopes #24

  Back to the future
• 
  2022-04-12

  VAP and SMhopes #23

  Me: We can help the earth. Diego: We can save earth.
• 
  2022-04-12

  VAP and SMhopes #22

  I hope for a cleaner world
• 
  2022-04-12

  VAP and SMhopes #21

  Technology will take over the World!
• 
  2022-04-12

  VAP and SMhopes #20

  There will be roads connecting buildings in the sky and over water.
• 
  2022-04-12

  VAP and SMhopes #19

  More nature
• 
  2022-04-12

  VAP and SMhopes #18

  End world pollution
• 
  2022-04-12

  VAP and SMhopes #17

  In the future I want to be a singer and an artist
• 
  2022-04-12

  VAP and SMhopes #16

  World peace is one project that we all have to do together!
• 
  2022-04-12

  VAP and SMhopes #15

  I think that the world can be a better place.
• 
  2022-04-12

  VAP and SMhopes #14

  In the future, I will be a singer and fashion designer
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  2022-04-12

  VAP and SMhopes #13

  In the future, the world will be clean, with no germs.
• 
  2022-04-12

  VAP and SMhopes #12

  In the future I want to be a baseball player.
• 
  2022-04-12

  VAP and SMhopes #11

  Yo quiero ser un jugador de fútbol
• 
  2022-04-12

  VAP and SMhopes #10

  No taxes, no Roblox, no homework, no veggies, no pollution. Edgar will be President and I will be Vice President
• 
  2022-04-12

  VAP and SMhopes #9

  Ser el jugador, estrella de todo el mundo.
• 
  2022-04-12

  VAP and SMhopes #7

  Santa Monica is the future
• 
  2022-04-12

  VAP and SMhopes #6

  20 years in the future
• 
  2022-04-12

  VAP and SMhopes #5

  All these eyes will help for seeing things better. Or if you're getting attacked these eyes will help you dodge or more.
• 
  2022-04-12

  VAP and SMhopes #4

  No more people = no more pollution; it's the truth
• 
  2022-04-12

  VAP and SMhopes #3

  No violence in the world
• 
  2022-04-12

  VAP and SMhopes #2

  Let's celebrate our differences
• 
  2022-04-12

  VAP and SMhopes #1

  I wish that I turned into the Flash,
• 
  2020-04-17

  I cough for my art

  A comic strip about Covid-19
• 
  0002-03-01

  SMhopes at the SMPL Teen Lounge

  A variety of submissions to the SMhopes website, designed as posters and banners by Paula Goldman, and installed in the Teen Lounge at the main branch of the Santa Monica Public Library. The Library asked for a variety of hopeful messages as they begin having students visit the Teen Lounge again.
• 
  2020-04-03

  My Brother's Keeper

  A comic strip about Covid-19
• 
  2020-03-30

  Roomate Issues

  A comic strip about Covid-19
• 
  2020-03-26

  Tasteful Home Office Decor in Unprecedented Times

  A comic strip about Covid-19
• 
  2022-02-23

  Sinking into a Deep Sleep

  I illustrated a CNA drowning in a molecule of sars-coV-19, also known as COVID19, to show the extreme conditions healthcare workers have been trying to push through during this pandemic. We have been working countless hours of overtime, sometimes for 24 or 48 hours straight due to understaffing, healthcare workers quitting, and others getting fired from refusing the vaccine. Our jobs have become very overwhelming, with the amount of cares we must provide for our patients, and with the thought of this pandemic having no end in sight, it's as if we're drowning in this pandemic. Healthcare workers are drowning in all the cares they must provide their patients, that they're unable to take care of themselves, and soon we won't have many healthcare and medical professionals left. That is why I chose to portray this CNA the way I did, and I hope others can agree with my experiences.
• 
  08/10/2020

  Helen Brechlin, Oral History, 2020/08/10

  Alex Brice interviews Helen Brechlin, who is an administrative supervisor at the Boston Institutes Contemporary Art Museum. The interview begins with Helen discussing the onset of quarantine and the transition to working from home. She explains the intricacies of managing a team digitally. Additionally, Helen goes into how living with a partner who also works from home, you have to develop a new routine and learning to balance time and space. Helen then explains some things she did teleworking to keep her team strong, including having weekly communications and diving deeper into some of the artists displayed at the museum. Then Helen is asked about the George Floyd incident and how it impacted her and she expressed the importance of community, advocating change, and separately the importance of real communication over social media. Lastly, Helen talked about the differences after reopening the museum and making it safe and comfortable for visitors.
• 
  2021-11-09

  SMhopes banner with Santa Monica Public Library

  Graphic banner made from a submission to #SMhopes by Roxane D., a Fifth Grade student in Paula Flynn's class at Franklin Elementary School in Santa Monica, CA. In cooperation with Santa Monica Public Library, at the historic Ocean Park Branch on Main Street and Ocean Park.
• 
  2021-06-01

  SMhopes banners with Community Corp

  Graphic banners from submissions to #SMhopes on the Journal of the Plague Year website, in cooperation with the Community Corporation of Santa Monica, at 3031 Santa Monica Blvd. in Santa Monica, CA
• 
  2020-09-29

  Is This the End of Contemporary Art As We Know It?

  Artist Liam Gillick and a writer for ArtReview, J.J. Charlesworth talk about the changes brought by the pandemic and the many ways that everything will most likely remain the same. Interestingly, they examine the beginning and end of “contemporary art” and the complex web of economic, social, political and cultural factors that are shifting and breaking down in different ways from our current crises. 

In the end, the feeling that art will survive but the idea that this particular period of art and the art world has reached its end is contemplated.
• 
  2021-09-30

  Pro-Vax, Pro-Union Anti-Fascist Poster - Jewish Melbourne

  In the wake of the anti-lockdown riots that gripped Melbourne in September 2021, the Campaign Against Fascism movement disseminated the phrase Pro-Vax, Pro-Union, Anti-Fascist. Inspired by this, Link/לינק, a zine associated with the Jewish Labour Bund in Melbourne, posted a poster to their Instagram account, of their take on this messaging, including the shouting man from early twentieth-century Bund posters. The poster was also physically published in the zine's second edition in October 2021. HIST30060
• 
  2020-09-27

  Views From Quarantine

  On September 3, 2020, I was notified by a friend that I had come in close contact with someone who had tested positive for COVID-19. I then spent the next 14 days in quarantine, not once leaving my room. Since I live and work in the Taylor Place dorms, I immediately notified the community directors and was placed in a quarantine dorm where I could be separated from my roommate. Despite testing negative for COVID-19 and not having any symptoms, I still needed to quarantine for 14 days as a precaution according to ASU Health Services. Being confined by empty white walls and only being able to see slivers of the sky made the loneliness even more apparent. Although my camera was the first thing I packed, it took me until the ninth day to find the motivation to pick it up. I began photographing the things I could see from my dorm or my “Views from Quarantine.” Using a long lens, I had residents pose in their windows in ways that expressed their personalities. With every photo, I felt less and less alone. I began to realize how important it is for people to see what it meant to quarantine in the dorms. So I also began photographing my meals and room. At the end of it, I put together a photo story, “Views from Quarantine,” that was published in The State Press. It is probably one of my proudest accomplishments so far.
• 
  2020-05-04

  Amateur Art During the Pandemic

  This is a sculpture of a seahorse hanging onto a piece of seaweed. The base is newspaper, toilet paper tubes, masking tape, and paper mâché. The seahorse is painted gray and the seagrass is painted green. Each element is covered in soda tabs, and the ones on the sea grass are spray painted green. The whole thing is attached with nails to a branch I found in the woods of my backyard. This paper mâché seahorse was a project for my sculpture class senior year. I remember the base of the seahorse was due on Friday March 13th. That morning, my mom told me to bring everything home in case we went virtual and weren’t allowed back in the school. So I lugged the whole thing back home that weekend, and sure enough my mom was right. Most of my classes didn’t do very much for the rest of the year, since we were seniors and AP tests were the only thing we had to worry about. However, my art teacher did not take this approach. She continued to hold weekly meetings to check in on our progress for this sculpture. She had us come by the school to pick up supplies to finish it, and it ended up being really good for me. I wasn’t too happy about this at first, since I was only taking the class for fun and it ended up being a lot harder than I thought it would, but it quickly became the most enjoyable part of virtual school. I am the kind of person that needs direction and a schedule or else I will just waste the day, so the pandemic was hard for me once school went virtual and I didn’t have anything to do. I had an abundance of energy and nothing to spend it on. This project allowed me to complete something that required focus, and that also allowed me to take a break from the mundane days I was experiencing. I didn’t have time to sit there and think about all that I was losing and all that the world was losing, because I was working on this piece. It got to the point where I looked forward to doing this homework, and I was actually sad when I finished it.
• 
  2021-08-30

  my experience with mental health in quarantine

  the drawing is a representation of how my mental state has deteriorated and I lost the confidence, ability to socialize well, and my worsening depression.
• 
  2021-08-10

  Street Art

  A friend of mine posted this photograph on social media
• 
  2020

  Neighbourhood walks

  Some pictures of my local neighbourhood walks within my 5km radius of Albert Park, Prahran and South Yarra. Some cute and creative things that people did to brighten other peoples' walks. All taken during the long lockdown in Melbourne between August and December 2020.