Shelter in Place doesn't mean Creativity Stops!
Yea I Know. Maintain social distancing, shelter in place, and wash,wash,wash hands. Believe me I'm doing it and it's getting overwhelming. I've braved the elements in early morning warehouse box store lines for a pack of TP and PT's ( toilet paper and paper towels). I feel like an Alien when I go into a store and I'm the only one wearing gloves and a mask; and it's funny, I've always opened doors with my sleeve and/or a not so common grab point but it's more extreme now. The Covid-19 virus has changed my mental landscape as well as my kitchen cupboards. They're full of non perishable essentials and I'm prepared for the end of the world, well for two months of it at least. But hope and faith keep me positive through all of the craziness.
As an artist I keep focused on the future and on creating images that are reflections of this scary time of 2020. My artwork at this moment is spontaneously created while waiting in lines, watching the news, and seeing everyday images in a new way. Photography is my tool of choice at the moment and its immediacy is what I need right now. Ideas are fleeting, time is unclear, and I need to make images quickly.
The pictures shown here are some of those creations.
- A shopping cart child seat cover is transformed into a public service announcement relating to the hoarding of toilet paper.
- A self portrait of me in my cold weather virus garb, as I stand in a Costco line in the early morning with a hundred others.
- A play on the " Scam Likely " call
- An advertisement for my website www.diazideas using the directions on "how to wash you hands" and A cleared out grocery store shelf with a wisp of smoke clouding it's emptiness.
Personally, I hope I won't be making too many more of these artworks relating to this crisis but time will be that judge.
Creativity never stops!
The world will never stop!
As long as our compassion and caring for one another remains; we can all find and create beautiful and thoughtful things even when tested to our limits.
Anthony Michael Diaz 3-25-2020
