The Inspiration
I started spring of 2020 with sketches. While art has been a part of my life since I was young, it was on the backburner while I was running my photography business.
Originally, the fungus was meant to grow from the same log to symbolize our collective experience and growth from living through a pandemic. I’ve used fungus as a visual metaphor before, and this was a natural choice for me to create something new. But as events unfolded, I broke the composition into opposing sides. I gradually added glasslike shards to signify polarization of beliefs and politics.
The major change to the painting came from the tumultuous news cycle, but also personal experiences. It was nerve-wracking photographing weddings during an evolving pandemic. My first wedding back included the father of the bride (a doctor) getting within six inches of my face telling me Black Lives Matter was a stupid movement and that everyone I loved would get Covid-19. I walked away from more than one event shaken. Like clockwork, I was notified a couple days after most weddings that I was exposed to someone infected with the virus. Then I’d have to drop everything to get tested before the following event. Painting this was a cathartic, meditative way to cope and get back into making art.
The Song
At the beginning of 2020, I found the song “Let’s Dance to Joy Division” by The Wombats. While the actual meaning of the lyrics doesn’t align with the one I assigned to it, it became like an anthem every time I was working. I imagined it playing while crowds of wedding guests gradually took off their masks (or never had them on at all) having fun on the dancefloor. It felt like everyone was taking a sigh of relief having the opportunity to gather again and live “normally” for a night. Divisions were set aside in celebration of the couples getting married. The portions of the song that struck me most in this context were:
“Let’s dance to Joy Division
And celebrate the irony
Everything is going wrong
But we’re so happy
Let’s dance to Joy Division
And raise our glass to the ceiling
‘Cause this could all go so wrong
But we’re so happy
Yeah, we’re so happy”And later –
“So, let the love tear us apart
I found the cure for a broken heart
Let it tear us apart, let it tear us apart, let it tear us apart”
I’ve picked up and put down this painting countless times since starting. The meaning for me now is that while the political climate we find ourselves in divides, it’s important to acknowledge we’re all products of unique situations. We’re all growing in some way from this collective experience. I hope we can simultaneously hold personal beliefs while respecting an opposing side. May joy gradually win over division.