COVID-ART-SHOW part 1

 

Back in September, I posted about a Virtual Art Show sponsored by the Mittleman Jewish Community Center and ORA Northwest Jewish Artists. 

So much has happened since this pandemic launched us all into hermit status...or at least, semi hermit status!

The focus of the show was..."What did you create between March and September?" Submit one entry!

 This is the first of a several part series of postings about my process leading to the largest fused glass wall piece I built and displayed in the COVID ART SHOW.  This first one is a lot of words...the rest will have images of my notes, research, and execution of the project. I am proud of my work...it links my usual focus of judaica with social justice activism. I learned a lot...I would humbly like to share.

Hmmm...what was going on back then? Elections!!! First the primary and then the seemingly endless campaigning for the upcoming election in November. Politics became a team sport. Cheering and jeering crowds no longer think of their behavior as inappropriate. All the anti-bullying lessons teachers valiantly try to offer school children have been eroded- replaced by adults who think nothing of public name calling, shaming, and bullying. Blind loyalty to an individual and/or party rather than being open to the possibility that your candidate may have sufficient flaws to alter the way you vote. "It's my candidate/my party...right or wrong!" Thankfully, there were exceptions. I only hope that our children will have the strength to emulate the few adults in their world who have modeled ways in which to disagree in a civil manner.  I considered this a theme for my work. I came up blank.

And then there was COVID. The COVID pandemic demonstrated how little support our frontline medical teams were receiving....and then how our federal government was failing us. We witnessed a State of Emergency declared in country after country, including our own. We watching the numbers of deaths rise and rise and rise much like we would standing at the bank of a rising river, knowing we could do nothing to prevent the flood. And all the while, many of our fellow citizens poo-poo'ed the idea of a deadly virus, scoffed at taking preventative measures....and now, several months later (late December), we are back at the banks of this viral river, watching the banks again overflowing with record-setting deaths.             My heart grieves for these lost lives. What have we as a country lost as the result of their souls; the contributions they would have made to their families, to their neighbors, to our world? What could I say, using glass as my medium, to express my anger....and my sorrow?

....And still....more sorrow. Black Lives Matter. No more denial America! Racism in the U.S.A is alive and sadly flourishing. Our citizens of color, particularly (but not exclusively) African Americans live with in-your-face discrimination every day of their lives. STILL!      I wanted to advocate for Black communities across our nation. The challenge was that despite feeling like I am still a young person...I AM NOT YOUNG!                                        I wanted to be on the streets of downtown Portland protesting....and yet, I am deeply vulnerable. I had to stay home, watching our fine youth and a few very brave elders take a public stand. My activism seemed limited to making financial donations to the social justice organizations I believed could best address the on-going and quite lame denial proclaimed by government official and the police.       And then I understood. Politics, COVID, Black Lives Matter ...they are all linked. The lives of our citizens of color are impacted so directly by inaction and bigotry in our government, among those of us who are privileged, and even in the world of medicine where doctors take an oath to do no harm....that they are dying in greater numbers than any other group of people.     

I am a retired school teacher....I came into the world of glass art late. I am not a Bansky or a Margaret Bourke-White, or Kara Walker (look her up!!! She is amazing!) How could I communicate...no, how could I create a metaphor in glass and use it to teach...?

My daughter-in-law had no idea that she would launch my research when she texted me a link to an article that became pivotal to my focus.

Teaching and preaching rhyme...but they aren't the same.  Admittedly, I can be prone to the preaching side of things....so with that warning swirling in my head and a link to an article, my COVID art journey began.   I hope you will join me in my next posting. More images, less talk!

If you look at the COVID Word Cloud above, and then this one how 
many words could be shifted from above to bring into this  BLM cloud?
Think about it.