The Art of Recreation: 5 Tips for Artists during Corona

This year has been challenging for the art world and myself as an artist.

At first, we all were under the impression that the pandemic will be handled quickly, but that was not the case. We bounced in and out of quarantines like a child jumping on his bed when told not to. The uncertainty of the past 12 months has been something that every individual was forced to adapt to. However, the inability to physically display artworks of artists during corona in galleries pushed me to adapt and find alternative options of sharing my pieces. These included showcasing my art on multiple social networks resulting in reaching audiences that otherwise would have never had the ability to even hear about my work. By leaving my comfort zone, I met many people who are yearning for fresh art experiences.

My feelings of sadness and imprisonment also inspired different content to the work.

What did I draw?

My immediate surroundings, my family members, my garden, and any object around me that caught my attention and curiosity.

I painted mostly in natural light so I was limited to a few hours of work per day for each painting. I did this in order to capture the most optimal light for each of them.

Also, I do not paint from photographs but mainly from observations. The painting from my observations maintains an equal balance of tension in the work. The environment around the object I choose to paint affects the tones and authentic connections in the pieces.

During the past few months I've been enriching my knowledge in zoom courses on topics of self-awareness, art curation and museology. I have read a lot of books that sharpened my philosophical understanding of art and life in general.

I decided to set up my own website so I can connect to more people around the world and I slowly build it up. I'm also more focused on expanding my social community and creating more valuable content for them. In addition, I've also grown fond of sitting down and writing blog posts that I think will be useful for other artists in my position.

I'm still creating during the Covid-19 pandemic. The pain, anger, frustration and self-pity have been brought to my canvas. The brush and the colors are my channel for transforming my feelings and emotions to a canvas.

Here are a few things I find useful for artists during Corona:

1. Use your own environment to get inspired. Your family, your home and the objects around you. Embrace your anger, frustration and even perhaps your depression, to create. Take these emotions and portray it onto your art and it'll lighten the burden on your chest.
   

2. Expand your knowledge with Online Courses - Sign up to courses online (free or paid). I was able to find some affordable workshops online about art, marketing, art curation and museology.
   

3. Read books! You now have more time to invest in reading. I suggest reading books about arts, philosophy, perhaps explore some new topics that are not necessarily related to your field of art, or to art at all. This will open your mind and you can discover new ideas you never thought about before- you never know where inspiration will strike. Here are the books I read with a link to Amazon page: * Brave New World by Aldous Huxley * The Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield * Mastering Change: A Formula on How to Turn Circumstances into Personal Growth and Create the Life You Want by Leonardo Daniel * Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ by Daniel Goleman * The 5 AM Club by Robin Sharma * Love's Executioner and Other Tales of Psychotherapy by Irvin D. Yalom
   

4. Focus on your Social Community - I recommend investing in your community. Share your work with them not only in it's final result, but the process as well. Don't forget they can't explore art outside - it's your role to bring it to them. Stimulate their attention and curiosity by showing them what inspires you. Respond to them, be accessible to questions and comment. Expand your community and reach new audiences.
   

5. Share your art - Spread the word and let everyone see what you created. It's important to have a place where people can see your creation. You can open a website, invest in your Instagram or Facebook account or also in a Pinterest page. I chose to start my new site with Wix Websites as I find this platform very friendly to non-technical people. It has various ways to easily design the way I want to manage all the content. You can try it up yourself in www.wix.com for free!