Through art, St. Mary’s Dominican High School students in teacher Angelle Caffery’s Art I, Art III and Art II honors classes expressed their personal experiences of living in isolation during a pandemic.
“I think it is important for the students to reflect and creatively deal with the feelings and frustrations they may be feeling at this time,” Caffery said.
Alexis Favalora, senior
Idea: Represent how the coronavirus has affected me.
Process: First, I thought about how the virus was affecting me. … by opening my eyes on how I can make a change to stopping the spread. Then I got to work. First, I did the base coats, then I drew the eye with pencil and the words and painted it.
Carrie Madden, junior Idea: I wanted to create a piece that represents my current lifestyle.
Process: I drew hands with cleaning products to symbolize COVID-19 and its effect on everyone. Because of this quarantine, I have been able to do many of my favorite childhood activities without stressing as much on school. I drew a little girl (to symbolize myself) playing in a puddle because I have been trying to find some “light” during this difficult time.
Abigail Gaubert, sophomore
Idea: I wanted to show what has been going on in the world lately and what I have been doing. I put four different bubbles that all represent different things.
Process: The top right bubble is front line workers, health care workers and other essential workers. The bottom right bubble is what I’ve been doing in quarantine. I have pictures of me with my family, schoolwork, sleeping, working out and my phone. The bottom left are the news and government workers. Lastly, the top left I have pictures of me and my friends who I can’t see during quarantine and softball, since my season was canceled.
Josephine Toso, junior
Idea: Due to recent events, we are told to stay inside and social distance to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. My goal for this piece was to show the importance of doing those things, and if we continue to do so it will eventually flatten the curve. In the background, I listed the main facts about the virus as well as events canceled because of it. In the bottom left corner, a vaccine key is shown to symbolize the “key” to ending this quarantine.
Process: First, I roughly sketched the house, chain and key. After outlining it in thin Sharpie, I colored in the house with markers and shaded the chain and key with 6B pencils. Finally, I drew in the background in the red marker.
Julia West, senior
Idea: I wanted to demonstrate what this pandemic has done to my senior year as well as the rest of my class. It has ruined so many memories that were supposed to be made, and I won’t ever be able to make them the same way. It took me away from the sisterhood I had created with these girls for five years. It took away the school I call home, and I won’t be able to experience my final moments as a senior with the Dominican family I love dearly. It also took me away from the class I loved the most and the teacher that truly made my year.
Process: The process was difficult because I had to force everyone to get dressed. No one wanted to, of course. I also had to get my Maw Maw to take the picture, and that was an entire process in itself.