Items

• 
  2020

  Places of Silence

  Places of Silence Artists’ Statement The cataclysmic situation caused by the Covid-19 has created a new reality for people. Society faces disastrous effects of unprecedent pandemic: losses of the human lives, loneliness, luck of personal interaction, anxiety, feeling hopeless. Visiting our favorite places, we were struck by the scarce silence of the streets, abandoned buildings, gardens. We saw the familiar places from entirely different perspective - they were silent. Spacious grounds, the ocean coast, paths in the sand were without the usual addition - a man. Our ongoing project “Places of Silence” reflects our personal experience in this new reality. Another aspect of the project is depicting the sublime beauty of landscapes surrounding us. We feel that looking at nature brings a balance and hope, as well as leads to the self-reflection, understanding oneself, and one's responsibility to other people. The project consists of ten large scale mixed media paintings on canvases and more then eighty works on paper. We have chosen paper as the integral material for the series. The origin of paper is directly related to nature. Its texture and brittleness reflect the amazing vitality and fragility of the nature. We applied black acrylic paint on the traditional oriental rice paper creating the palette of different hues and then attached small pieces of paper to the canvas the same way as if we would be using paint. Dense layers, lumps of liquid mass soaked in water, monochrome colors, an endless gradation from black to white allow us to create rich Earth like surface for our landscape works.
• 
  2020-09-26

  The causes of COVID-19

  The COVID-19 pandemic was something I definitely did not expect. It was a shock to not only me, but also to everyone in this world. This pandemic completely shifted my life into something entirely different from what I’m used too. Pre-COVID-19, I did not have to think about leaving my house with a mask on. Now, while we are still in the pandemic, leaving the house with a mask on is part of my everyday essentials. Wearing a mask is currently part of my wardrobe. I bought reusable masks because they are not good for the environment. Global warming is a very big issue that many people do not believe in, but I do believe in. I try my best to help the environment as much as I can, so buying reusable masks is what I did. Also, those medical masks are so expensive now, it is something I cannot afford to keep buying. While on the topic of expensive, I was someone who always carried hand sanitizer with me wherever I went. Now that hand sanitizer is a necessity due to the virus, it was hard for me to find them in stores, and when I did find them, the cost was two times higher than it originally would be. Money became an issue for me due to the change of price in many things. I did not work during the start of the pandemic because I was scared to put my families lives at risk. I work now, but I practice social distancing as much as I can, I sanitize, and I wear a face mask at all times. The hardest part about being in quarantine would be remote learning, and it still is. I was someone who despised online classes. I always avoided taking them. However, due to the pandemic, I had no other choice but to take online classes. I appreciate the effort my professors put into trying to make everything work, but it will never be the same as being in class physically and learning. Taking online classes is so stressful because I am basically teaching myself. Depending on the professor, somethings are just not clearly explained so I am left confused very often. Trying to manage everything in my personal life on top of online classes is not easy. Working academically in the comfort of my own home, with my family was and still is a struggle. I need to be in a different environment other than my own home in order for me to fully concentrate and study for my classes. Another constant issue with remote learning is my horrible WIFI connection. My WIFI has been a mess since quarantine started. Having bad WIFI added on to more stress for my online classes because I needed the internet to finish my work and pass my classes. Nonetheless, the CDC is trying their best to stop the spread of COVID-19. This pandemic has caused a major shift to the world, especially mine. The best thing I can do is to continue to work hard and do the best that I can. We have been in a pandemic for 7 months now. Unfortunately, this is our new normal.