Posts Tagged ‘2020’
The Social Experiment
You know them as a statistic; but they are really just like us. In late July this year, as the world revealed a “new normal,” a small group of us at NYU Abu Dhabi decided to conduct a social experiment to tell a different story. This may not be the full story; still, it feels…
Read MoreWe Are Grateful
In March, COVID-19 hit like a ton of bricks. Most of us tried to stay out of its way, but some people couldn’t shelter at home and had no choice but to confront the virus head on. Police, fire, grocery workers, health care providers, hospital staff went to jobs that had quickly become perilous. Some…
Read MoreNo Joy in Harrison
On a recent photo excursion, I took some shots at an eerily empty professional soccer stadium, the Red Bull Arena in Harrison, New Jersey, home to the New York Red Bulls soccer club. Empty, quiet, not a soul around. Ticket booths shuttered as no fans can attend any games during the pandemic. What a strange…
Read MoreLooking Up
It was July 31 and the highlight of our day, the evening walk. We serendipitously stumbled upon a live chamber music concert by the troupe Mistral in a local park. There in the center of the park, masked and distanced, the seven or so musicians played to an equally masked and distanced crowd. We delighted…
Read MoreHelmet + Mask = The New Headgear
By now it’s pretty commonplace around Cambridge, Mass., to see people wearing protective headgear and masks on bicycles, scooters, mopeds, and even motorcycles. I’m grateful for their effort and commitment to helping stanch the Corona spread. But the masks—a constant reminder of the state of the world today–are still too recent and I do a…
Read MoreShipwreck
A few weeks after lockdown started I made arrangements to vacation on Plum Island on Cape Ann in Massachusetts for two weeks. It was March; surely by July the lockdown would be over and I would go paint on the beach and eat ice cream and lobster rolls, lots of lobster rolls. Lockdown wasn’t over,…
Read MoreWorking through Confusion
In March when all was confusion and uncertainty I began hand stitching small six-inch pieces. Stitching by hand is rhythmic, like breathing. The pieces reflected my thoughts and experiences in the early months of the pandemic. I walked every day in the Middlesex Fells. The reappearance of young plants as the spring took hold was…
Read MoreIsolation Blues
Isolation Blues: keyboard, conch, homemade single-string guitar, Roli Lightpad, rattles. Performed by Headzic, aka John Shapter Headzic · Isolation Blues I am a musician and a performer. When the lockdown was announced in March it felt as though the rug had been pulled out from under me. A gig I had the next week was…
Read MoreMystery Wins
I use Instagram as a rough barometer to show me which of my images of the pandemic appeal the most. Masked faces are the most popular in my feed, but not just any masked faces—I get the most engagement with images of faces that are nearly completely obscured, leaving it up to the viewer to…
Read MoreThe Final Touch
My models for this painting are from a photo I took in the neighborhood, pre-COVID-19. They had been serene and self-assured, moving with certainty, in my unfinished painting from a while ago. When I recently revisited the work, it seemed that they — the figures — were asking for an update. A small one, really,…
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