Artwork That Celebrates or Memorializes

Minion Santa for Jacob

During this time of quarantine, lots of people have been using Art as a way of coping with isolation and connecting with others. My last interview subject, artist and friend Patricia J. Moss, said it best when she wrote:

"It is the creativity of expression that drives connection with others. 

In turn that connection allows us to grow, expanding our perspectives, feeding our souls, and inspiring our spirits."

I want to start off this post with a pop-up Christmas card that I made for an ailing little boy named Jacob. I really hope that he received it and that it brought him joy.

A message from Bristol, England

Millions of people have been artfully creating cards and posters to celebrate healthcare workers, first responders, and caretakers of the sick during this pandemic. When I walk around my neighborhood, I see lots of signs, in windows using rainbows as symbols of hope, drawn by children who want to express their own messages to passersby. It's therapeutic for the kids and makes us smile during an otherwise sad time period.

Card by Karynne Patterson

My own grown daughter creates handmade birthday cards that celebrate her co-workers by using whatever scrap paper and markers are available in her office. I feel like she is channeling French artist, Henri Matisse, who in his later years used paper cutouts in his artwork. When my daughter was in elementary school, we did an art project that required tracing a shape from a Matisse work and incorporating it in a composition. Maybe that inspired my daughter to do art as an adult. Now, I'm sure she's too busy at work to carry on this office birthday tradition! And working from home to boot!!

Recently, you may have heard of the passing of longtime Jeopardy host, Alex Trebek. I've been faithfully watching his program for years and am trying not to miss any of these final Jeopardy episodes that Alex taped as recently as 29 October! I'm seeing lots of portraits memorializing him all over the Internet. This one is from a tribute by Canadian Geographic.

I also found this pair of artworks on My Modern Met memorializing Trebek in Black-and-white and color.

You can play Artist Jeopardy in one of my posts. I love the show so much that I created my own Jeopardy games for teaching art docents at Green River Community College, for a team project in my Project Management Master's Program at City University, and for my parents to celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary.

Who can forget the hilarious Celebrity Jeopardy tribute to a tormented and mustached Alex Trebek portrayed by SNL's Will Ferrel (and Darrell Hammond as Connery)? With the recent passing of James Bond actor Sean Connery, it may be in bad taste, though I wonder how it had been received by both. Apparently, there was also a Jeopardy spoof involving the now late Burt Reynolds.

Sean Connery (2015), Lovering

I am in awe of Scottish artist, Paul Lovering's watercolor portrait of Sean Connery. It is contemplative and peaceful. Lovering's celebrity portraits are indeed amazing! I also saw a photograph of Connery by Annie Leibovitz in 2017 while visiting the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh. 

My favorite Bond is Sean Connery and my favorite of his seven Bond films is Goldfinger. My favorite scene is from his final unauthorized Never Say Never Again where he fires a miniature rocket grenade from a fountain pen (supplied by Q but not yet perfected) at the evil Fatima Blush (Barbara Carrera), the delayed explosion leaving only her smoldering shoes.

You may also visit my post about Landmarks in James Bond Movies.

Self-Portrait After the Spanish Flu (1919), Munch

Recall that I visited the Edvard Munch Museum in Oslo, Norway in June 2019 during our Baltics cruise. There, I saw lots of depressing paintings of people who are sick or dying, including a self-portrait of Munch after the Spanish Flu (epidemic 1918-20). He survived until his death in 1944.

Even the choice of colors -- teals and mustardy golds -- along with the drippy washes and brushstrokes and exhausted expression make for overall sadness and despair. His use of contrasting colors is very effective.

Guernica, 2020, Tony Aguero

I also found a painting inspired by Pablo Picasso's Guernica (1937), painted by Tony Aguero, an interdisciplinary artist based in Portland, OR, originally from Costa Rica. This 2020 painting reflects the struggle with the current pandemic after Picasso's work depicting the tragedies of war.

In other posts from this year, I highlighted some great sculptures used as memorials to local heroes, famous authors, or historic cultural, religious, or military figures. See Sculpture -- Another Dimension of Art, my Art of the Pacific Northwest Series, and my Baltics series.

Our world is experiencing a very trying pandemic while producing some amazing art. Unfortunately, it has also been a period of civil unrest often accompanied by violent acts that devastate longstanding monuments that had for years celebrated people's lives and their contributions. It saddens me to think of the art that is being destroyed given how long and how many great works have survived and the effort to maintain, restore, and preserve them for generations to come.