It’s going to take more than a pandemic to stop OCAD U’s community of artists, staff members and alumni.
One week after the university shut its doors in mid-March, several students in the Drawing and Painting undergraduate program began publicly sharing their responses to the coronavirus pandemic by posting expressive artwork on Instagram.
Figurative and abstracted drawings, paintings and textile work meditate on isolation, new routines, empty streets, sanitation culture and our hyper-technological new reality, and the feelings they elicit: fear, sadness and uncertainty, but also a sense of opportunity. Here’s a collection of some of these works of art, along with their descriptions.
Mel’s making masks
Soon after the pandemic hit, when a protective mask shortage seemed imminent, Mel Racho decided to join the growing ranks of citizen mask-makers. A senior web developer at OCAD U, Racho followed a simple pattern released by a hospital in Indiana, and advice from Quilt Addicts Anonymous, to turn his surplus bedsheets into masks. So far, he’s made and distributed 20 masks to family members and friends.
“People still need to leave their houses to get supplies and take walks, so I thought this was one small way I could contribute,” says Racho.
Seeds of unity
At a time when there’s less certainty about access to food, it’s heartening to know that a local seed library has opened its virtual doors.
OCAD U staff member Claire Carabott had a sizeable collection of seeds of various vegetable and herb seeds, more than she could use herself. Concerned about food security, she posted her inventory on her neighbourhood’s “Buy Nothing” Facebook group, offering to give away seeds through contactless porch pickup. So far, about 40 people have taken her up on her offer.
“My hope it that people can supplement their own groceries and also share with their neighbours and friends,” Carabott says. “This would of course reduce food insecurity, but also strengthen community bonds at a time when we need it more than ever.”
Being the change
Who is the person I most desire to be during this period?
Alondra Ruiz Hernandez wondered about that as the pandemic unfolded, and about the suffering it’s creating for marginalized people. A recent graduate of OCAD U’s Painting and Drawing undergraduate program, Ruiz Hernandez discovered Community Food Center Canada’s new COVID-19 fund to provide emergency relief to vulnerable citizens. She decided to support the fund by donating her remaining salary from her job as an OCAD U photographer.
“One thing this virus has shown us is how interconnected we are,” she says, “and with that in mind, how essential it is we support each other in the ways we can.”