As the holidays have begun to arrive, there has been a sense of excitement for the season coupled with the reality of the increasing severity of the pandemic. In my time at Common Art, I hadn’t yet seen the virus impact community members so directly. Now I have begun to see community members experiencing loss, and relatives of community members being hospitalized. It felt like the virus slowly crept closer and closer to home at Common Art. This has been tough to see as folks worry about their own safety and struggle with grief. As a result, I’ve spent a lot of time with community members hearing and reading stories about their loved ones. Without the ability to see relatives for the holidays, it’s been really lovely to hear about folks’ families or friends and honor those that can’t be with us in the space.

Between the holidays and the pandemic, I’ve also noticed an increase in folks engaging with the art materials. Of course, I see this as a great outlet to process some emotions and relieve stress. I began to offer white crayons to community members along with watercolors with the idea to use the resist of the crayon to create snowflakes. I was really elated to see how well received this project was as I had a small group of community members enjoying the surprise of drawing with the white crayon then painting over with the watercolor to see their drawing come to life. Everyone brought their own creativity in beautiful ways using this technique to create snowflakes, abstract paintings, crosses for Advent, cards and more! Moving forward I would like to take some of the momentum I’ve seen with the technique and encourage community members to use the supplies to create cards to distribute to friends and family to stay connected. Through the creation of cards, I think this could be a lovely time to engage folks in conversations about their loved ones and holiday traditions to hold those memories close to our hearts as the season continues. All in all, as the temperatures continue to drop and the pandemic remains, I am always inspired by the community’s resiliency and readiness to engage in the artistic process. I hope to keep offering inviting arts activities as the feelings elicited by the holidays continue to arise.