The challenges and changes we all face during the Covid 19 outbreak are too numerous to list. It seems to me that learning to be adaptive is the key to coping. Serious aspects of people’s lives and our culture have been effected. I feel very fortunate to have maintained a steady income, been able to work, and most importantly my family and I have stayed healthy.
This means that finding ways to stay creative and active are trivial compared to the hardships and tragedy felt by some. But in an attempt to keep artists and the community engaged many art galleries and museums have been finding ways to keep artists, visitors, and patrons engaged. I feel very fortunate to have had work exhibited, virtually and in place, in multiple galleries and museums in the past 6 months.
An artist statement and image from one of those exhibitions and some thoughts on being adaptive are below:
SPA Gallery: Shelter in Place
Mark Dixon Artist Statement
The isolation we often seek for solace, respite, creativity, or even reward has a very different feel when it is imposed. Partly from the inherent uncertainty and hardship, but also because it is our nature to chafe under compliance. We are all finding ways to become adaptive; some with remarkable altruism, others in self-indulgent “survival”.
I have been discovering and exploring many of the local land trust preserves and associated trails. Through a series of events, both geologic and personal, I live in an environment shaped by retreated glaciers. These glaciers found their terminus somewhere between my backyard and Long Island. Massive erratics, valleys strewn with boulders, exposed ledges, and cobbles dominate large parts of the landscape. Just try to dig a hole in your yard. These rocks were all placed or exposed by the whims of the glaciers, physics, and probability. But in some cases they have been altered by hands. Abandoned foundations, rudimentary fireplaces, and long linear stonewalls, of the sort that inspired Robert Frost, were all built by Colonial settlers. The clusters of cairns, serpents, and standing stones are of a more mysterious and debatable origin. I find these all very fascinating, hopefully not an obsession in germination. Moss and lichens covering the stones, ferns sprouting in shaded wet areas, and seasonal swelling streams add to the sense of a primal landscape. This all makes for beautiful hikes that lend to social distancing; hikes I would have otherwise passed by.
This has also been an opportunity to bring my camera on a few hikes and explore some new and different subject matter. I choose a Black and White format based on the subjects and the aesthetic of how I think they should be portrayed; and perhaps also influenced by the current mood.
