How does anybody handle unexpected, life-altering changes? The entire world from the scientific community to the average joe were at a loss with this lethal virus running rampant. Doing daily artwork was how I got through the earliest days and since after almost a year, the virus continues to keep us in its grasp art continues to be my salvation. Welcome to Art from the Car - A Compilation of Car-bound Sketches.
Long before the pandemic of the 2020’s, began I had suddenly developed arthritis of the knees and back limiting my mobility. After surgeries, physical therapy, and years of uncertainty, the world turned upside down. March of 2020, with Covid-19 forcing each of us to retreat into shells. Arthritis, is turns out, was good practice for facing down a virus that limited freedom of movement and rendered the notion of a fully engaged society almost obsolete. We were cast into what amounted to a Science Fiction episode without a script.
That spring, many found the family car a safe enclosure allowing short spans of travel safely encapsulated. The world was suddenly a moving picture where we could look but not touch. During stops to view scenery from the car, I created sketches and drawings as if my very life depended upon it. In the vanity mirror, I studied my face and amassed self-portraits running the gamut from blasé to at the edge of patience. When enforced isolation dragged on and became a miserable fact of life with no end in sight, drawing from behind the car's windows I scraped bottom and found beauty and security in otherwise overlooked urban settings, parking lots, commercial spaces, and roadside signs. It was a period of wishful thinking, remembering a rich society as it once was upbeat, free-wheeling, and fun.
Never underestimate the power of creativity, it ensures the survival of the human spirit. It soothes while waiting for normalcy and freedom of movement to return.
If you have children and are trapped in the car with them for long periods of time this interactive book might be the answer to a prayer. Just purchase a blank book, pencil with an eraser, a set of dollar store markers and have them read and follow along on their mobile devices and they can go to work and be amused for hours.