Quarantine Faces
Chancellor Jaime Watt’s Gallery: Creative Resilience, Resilient Creativity
Displayed in the lobby of First Canadian Place at 100 King St. W. Sponsored by Brookfield Properties and Navigator from Thursday, June 9 to June 24 2022.
Read Articles:
Exhibition Showcases Different Perspectives of Living During a Pandemic
About the work:
What started as a watercolor practice exercise became something much larger than the initial idea…
I had not gotten the chance to work with watercolors or practice portraiture for years and just wanted to revisit it. I came across the work of Darren Butcher and was captivated by his “Expressions” series on Instagram. The compositions he used were specifically something that I was visually drawn to and wanted to experiment with.
Art has always been a means to cope with and understand my feelings. I’ve turned to it in times of difficulty and used it as an outlet. It has always been personal and centered around what I was feeling, going through, and observing around myself.
This particular piece, however, differs significantly from any work I have created before, not only in terms of subject matter but also in my painting technique and color palette. Deciding not to use internet references, I reached out to my Instagram followers, asking if anyone was interested in having their portrait painted. Initially, the goal was to have a variety of faces to paint and improve my skills. However, during this process and after receiving the feedback that I did, I realized how happy it made people. How excited they were to see what the result would be. How this little project added some sense of joy during the pandemic.
We are living through a trying time where everyone around us is experiencing some form of anxiety or abnormality in their routines. This encouraged me to continue adding more people to the painting and sharing progress images. I wanted to contribute in whatever small way I could and foster a sense of unity for people to feel included, regardless of who they were or where they were from. This project was meant to be all-inclusive and welcoming to everyone, resulting in an exceptionally diverse final piece.
In-progress images:
Socials:
Darren Butcher: @darrenbutcherart