Mini-Exhibit: Looking Back on My Early Pandemic Art

March 2020 feels a little lost in the fog. Two years ago, the COVID-19 pandemic was getting real for Canadians (at least for those who we’re into accepting reality of it). Amidst the lockdowns, stress baking, endless Zoom meetings, and toilet paper shortages, some of us also got down to making some art. Let’s take a look at some stuff from the beginning of the plague years.

It’s difficult for me to process the emotional landscape of the early pandemic. There was so much anxiety, fear, over-confidence, and people trying to capitalise on the moment, that a transcript of my feelings might read like a series of gasping “oh fucks”. In the confusion making art was a daily safety valve. It forced me to slow down, externalise some of the things in my head, and share something that might bring a little bit of joy to someone else’s day.

The number one feature of any of my art at the time was clearly “masks”. As the mask rules slowly came into force, masks became the daily reminder that a microdroplet might have your name on it.

Anti-maskers tend to argue that mask rules were an attack on personal freedom. This doesn’t make sense to me, but ok. It’s plague logic. For people who see masking for what it is, wearing them is an act of mutual care. Masks, the science shows, can’t prevent you from getting COVID, though they can reduce the risk. Masks, however, do much more to significantly reduce the chance of you spreading the disease.

Put another way, wearing a mask recognises that protecting others is key to protecting one’s self. In this light, masks became a locus of collective action, like a massive solidarity march. In hindsight, it seems natural that masks would become a symbolic fixture for many artists. Though, I have to admit that masking became so normalised, it took just a handful of weeks for them to slip out of my art.

It’s now March 2022. The mask rules are dropping across Canada. Coronavirus is still out there doing its thing, so the plague years will continue. With all that in mind, here’s a small gallery of some pieces I made during the last weeks of March 2020. Some of these are are available as free wallpaper and device backgrounds! Enjoy. Stay safe.