Isolation Sparks Creativity

Victor Grossman has not gotten a full night’s sleep since quarantine began. He stays up late to draw. “There’s less pressure to be doing something else with my time right now. I find working on art really peaceful and rewarding. It helps to keep my mind off of other things,” he said.

The 22-year-old City College philosophy major lives at home with his parents on the Upper West Side and has always loved to draw.  But he struggled to find the time for creative work while school was in session. The quarantine gave him the opportunity to experiment. “I draw different environments I see around me. Sometimes I use Google Street View to find a scene that catches my attention. I draw it in my sketchbook, then take a picture of it with my phone, and go to the computer to color it and make different backgrounds,” he said.

Like Grossman, many others have turned the quarantine into a time to focus on creative projects. Melody Rivera, an art major at York College, uses art to connect with others during the pandemic.

“Everything being online right now is a positive because it makes art more attainable. Even though we can’t physically be with each other at the moment, people have more time to view each other’s art and to work on their own art than they normally do in their day-to-day lives. People and families aren’t attainable right now, working and jobs aren’t attainable, but art is,” she said.

Beyond individual efforts, big institutions also realize the importance of art during the pandemic. After the stay-at-home orders went into effect,  many museums began to offer virtual tours so that people could enjoy art from their own homes. This sparked people to recreate famous works of art using items they have at home.  

Rivera has also been using the time at home to admire the art of others, but in a far more current way. “I follow a lot of artists on Instagram who make comics. It’s been helpful because their work makes me laugh. Other times they inspire me to create something similar. Reading the comics and seeing the art that people create is really relaxing. It puts my mind somewhere else and helps me not to focus on the situation at hand,” she said.

More than just a way to pass the time, art has been a stress reliever for many people. Annelis Fontanez is an essential worker at a supermarket, so she doesn’t have as much time to do creative work. “I haven’t been able to work on art too often. I’m tired most of the time when I get home,” she said. “When I do find the time to draw, I like to use it to express how I’m feeling. I enjoy creating characters and giving them backstories, then drawing them on paper. It helps to clear my head and makes me feel comforted.”

Fontanez, like many other artists, runs an art account on Instagram. “It’s a good way to share your art with others and get it noticed and appreciated,” she said. The online world and social media let people broadcast their art to a wide audience. In a way, the isolation and quarantine has made life richer for artists. “There’s many opportunities to be had right now,” she added. “Most people have all of the time in the world to work on whatever they want right from home. They should make the most of it.”