Painting while isolated

Title

Painting while isolated

First Name

Gretchel

Last Name

Hathaway

Current location

Saratoga Springs, NY, United States

Relationship to Union

Staff

Minerva House

Messa

When this took place

March 2020 - May 2020

My Experience

I decided to paint my experiences around Covid-19. The Zoom Covid19 Quilt painting expressed feelings of being boxed inside my house, living alone. Each box touches on areas that are most sensitive. The target in the lower right corner is actually the strongest negative emotion - This focused on those feelings one could have if they had the disease: "Guilt" Who did I give it to? "Blame" -Some folks blaming others for the isolation. "Fear" - Of the unknown and long term consequences of this illness. and "Death" If diagnosed with it, you are afraid of dying from this disease. The bright orange square was anger - at what I was reading on social media when the college closed down. The xenophobic words and ignorance were really hurtful especially folks do not realize the pain they cause or maybe they truly wanted to inflict the pain due to their fear and ignorance. What I appreciated was how the College and the President never said who had contracted Covid19. They also never hinted or identified the gender of the person. Their sensitivity to the privacy of the individual was beautifully handled in the messaging to the campus.