Abbey Blake

How has your practice changed during quarantine? 
Being a printmaker, I had become accustomed to communal work spaces. Throughout the pandemic, I have found myself looking inward and relying on my own answers for questions I would normally ask studio mates and peers. Overall this has been good practice for myself as well as an opportunity to reflect on how others influence my work and its evolution. 

What is one silver lining that has come out of quarantine for you?
I got a dog! But truly, this has influenced my work. We walk or ski 2-4 miles  everyday and I have had the opportunity to watch the landscape transition from season to season. I also discover new places that prompt questions that eventually get further investigated through making. 

What has been the most challenging aspect of quarantine for you?
I miss hugs and community.

Aura Colomé Roig

How has your practice changed during quarantine?
I started painting a lot, almost every day. I had to paint small because I had no space and my bedroom became my studio. I was sharing a flat with no balcony with 3 more friends, so the space was limited. This also made me change from oil paintings to acrylics. 

What is one silver lining that has come out of quarantine for you?
I don't need much to be active and keep painting.

What has been the most challenging aspect of quarantine for you?
Facing myself and discovering my deep concerns

Breana Ferrara

How has your practice changed during quarantine?
During quarantine, my practice has probably changed the most in terms of my ability and drive to experiment. Pre-pandemic, I was always caught up in “When is the next gallery show? What sale do I have next?” and while it can be really motivating to be busy in your studio, usually when things are back-to-back, that means sticking with the techniques I’m more comfortable with (for me, that’s my excessive bead embroidery!). I have a tendency to say “yes” to too many things, get overwhelmed, and then I don’t really have any room for error or to expand the techniques/ideas that I’m using. I was obviously bummed when gallery shows and in-person sales were being cancelled, but it opened up a lot of space in my studio schedule to bring in some new methods of making and materials that excite and motivate me. Quarantine has really encouraged me to add time for play and reflecting on what I make, which is something I feel like I haven’t had since being in art school! I’m naturally pretty introverted and always spend a lot of time alone in my studio, so social distancing has luckily not felt too isolating in that way, but I think I have been encouraged by slowing down to really spend time with myself/my thoughts in a way where I’m more aware and present in the studio. For once I actually have the desire to learn new things, spend time researching, and find things out through trial and error, which always makes my work a lot more inspiring to me through the process!

What is one silver lining that has come out of quarantine for you?
One silver lining for me has definitely been the new opportunity to teach workshops virtually! Pre-pandemic I was a teacher’s assistant in a lot of different jewelry classes or I would fill in here and there, but I had never really been brave enough to teach a class that I had planned by myself. Beading is such a home-friendly, accessible, and cozy activity, which has lent itself well to virtual classes. Even though I was a little intimidated by the idea when I was approached to teach virtually, I decided to go for it and I’m really happy that I did! It’s really comforting to be able to socialize with other artists and crafters and to just connect with the brains of other makers for a bit, and it has really built up my self-confidence. Being a socially anxious person I’m not sure I would have fully made the jump to teaching my own classes in person if the pandemic hadn’t made virtual classes so necessary! 

What has been the most challenging aspect of quarantine for you?
I think being a maker in the midst of a global pandemic can feel pretty bizarre and hopeless at times, which has been the most challenging part for me anyways. It’s almost like you have to re-evaluate why you make art and why you feel that your voice is important or that making things is worthwhile. I’ve gotten over this feeling for the most part, but when we first entered quarantine I really struggled to feel like my art was really worth anything anymore. How could what I make possibly matter or make a difference when so many people are suffering and experiencing loss and trauma? It can feel impossible to make work with enough substance and meaning to justify its existence and my efforts in making it. It sounds dramatic, but I really had an existential crisis! In a way having those challenging and existential questions run through my mind, and actually having some time to process them, was a good thing for me. I’ve been realizing that my reason for making is deeper than some kind of academic statement of intent--it’s just the fact that I absolutely need to make the ideas that come to my brain that justifies my making now. Of course I have inspiration and goals for what I’d like my work to convey, but when all that falls away it’s my innermost nagging to make things that is that core of why I’m an artist. I also feel like I’ve witnessed how art really manages to allow us to connect and be intimate with one another in a way that you can’t even put into words when right now it’s so hard to achieve a level of deep connection because we’re so far from the people we want to be close to. There is something about putting ideas into the world through making that is just innately human even when it’s hard to be a human right now, and when I have doubted and been disappointed in humanity so often during COVID, and that’s really comforting to me.

Britina Cheng

How has your practice changed during quarantine?
I work in spurts. One week I will produce everyday. Then I will have a week where I won’t go near my art.

What is one silver lining that has come out of quarantine for you?
I didn’t think that I could spend so much time by myself. And I don’t think I would have learned that I could handle it if not for quarantine.

What has been the most challenging aspect of quarantine for you? 
Not being able to spend quality time with other people. I thrive on relationships and feel energized by spending time with other people.

Justin N. Kim

How has your practice changed during quarantine? 
The biggest change was the duration of my studio time. Pre-pandemic, I was painting daily but just barely one or two hours after my daywork. Since the lockdown, I’ve been living like a full time artist, which is more than great.

What is one silver lining that has come out of quarantine for you?
My silver lining is that I am utilizing this time wisely to be productive while it lasts. 

What has been the most challenging aspect of quarantine for you? 
I used to go to art shows but I haven’t gone anywhere outside other than two supermarkets. But I think these virtual shows are working just as well in terms of getting work out there to be seen. It just feels strange because you are consuming imagery through digital pixels in your bed rather than being inside a physical space and seeing art objects with your eyes. 

Kelly Emmrich

How has your practice changed during quarantine?
I think my practice has changed in that with each piece I take more time with it that I didn’t have before. A lot of the client work I would do before and after a full day of work. Now that I’m only working part-time at my brewery position, I have a lot more time to devote to doing what I love. 

What is one silver lining that has come out of quarantine for you? 
One of the silver linings of this year is that I started animating professionally. I fell into it really quickly, and it’s been both stressful and so gratifying. I love drawing traditionally and digitally still, but there’s something about 2D animation that has my heart. The tedium of it is really relaxing to me. I can just turn on a podcast and draw frame after frame. 

What has been the most challenging aspect of quarantine for you? 
Honestly the motivation to keep creating comes and goes. It was easier earlier into quarantine to create, because it felt like this wasn’t going to last that long. Now that it’s nearly a year from the initial lockdown, the days have become a little monotonous and depressing. It’s been more difficult to function normally and try to meet client deadlines in the winter months for sure.

Season Evans

How has your practice changed during quarantine?
Quarantine has completely changed my studio practice for a number of reasons. First, I have two children who are doing remote learning. Therefore I need to be home during the day. Second, my studio is in a shared building and I am not yet comfortable spending long periods of time there. When we first started quarantining, I brought some of my most important sewing tools (sewing machine, scissors, rotary cutter and mat, limited fabric, needles, and thread) and started working from my dining room. My makeshift studio has taught me how to make do with less and provided me with a greater focus and insight into the pieces I was working on. It’s in my nature to only work on one project at a time (although sometimes deadlines don’t allow for that) and being surrounded only by the task at hand helped to create a deeper connection to each piece. However, what was lost was the sense of inspiration I get from being surrounded by my work, fabrics, and creative isolation. At home, we are isolated together but my living space doesn’t allow for much alone time - it has to be fabricated.

What is one silver lining that has come out of quarantine?
One silver lining about quarantine is my perspective on time. Recognizing how the world felt at a stand still (particularly last February/March when Seattle first started to quarantine), gave me permission to take my time with my ideas about my work and the work itself. I let go of all the pressure to produce and really ask myself what I wanted to concentrate on - what did I really need to make? The structure of our lives shifted. Quilts are a way for me to explore structure both physically and conceptually. This quilt is made using different means of construction (piecing and weaving) that explore how structural shifts alter process and outcomes. 

What has been the most challenging aspect of quarantine for you?
We have been so very fortunate that no one in our immediate family has gotten COVID; yet how do we process how COVID has affected millions of others? How do we carry that incalculable loss? How do we handle the indirect effects of COVID and quarantine? How do we mourn? I started “Floating” before the toll of COVID spiked but it took me a long time to finish. And still how do I complete a piece about an ongoing crisis? I think that’s why I titled this piece “Floating”. In the beginning I felt like I was floating through space and time trying to maintain a sense of normalcy in our domestic life. And now, I feel like I’m floating through a sea of grief and loss that may not end for a long time. I have given myself to this moment and am letting it carry me. And yet. And yet, I am keeping myself afloat.

In this 5th installment of Cocktails with the Curators Vanessa and Liz talk about current group show Suspension: Art In The Age Of Quarantine.

In Video Links: Asian American Arts Alliance: https://www.aaartsalliance.org​

Asian Arts Initiative: https://www.asianartsinitiative.org​

Asian American Feminist Collective: https://www.asianamfeminism.org/resou...​