BY MADDISON FARRIS
People all over the world are doing what little they can to make the best of their time in quarantine during the coronavirus crisis. For artists Christine Sloan Stoddard, John Davis and Deniz Zeynep, channeling their creative abilities has been key to survival.
Stoddard, Davis and Zeynep all contributed to a video published titled “Artist in Quarantine,” featuring bright color schemes and stunning videography to give viewers an inside look at what it’s like to be an artist confined to their home. It draws a line between the indoors and outdoors and shows their differences while narrating a work of art.
Stoddard directed the video, and the music was contributed by Davis. Zeynep was happy to offer photography skills to enhance the visual aspect of the story. Stoddard typically uses Cannon equipment, but due to quarantine has switched to using an iPhone. Davis enjoys transferring live music into an online program to further enhance quality and sound as well as engineer feeling and emotion into his work.
Davis and Stoddard met during their work at HeartShare Human Services of New York, a nonprofit that works with adults with mental disabilities.
“Solitude isn’t new for me as an artist, yet documenting these moments in this project provided a chance for me to internalize and share my experience creatively without shutting off from the world,” Zeynep told QNS.
Davis, who is based in Queens, claims to spend a lot of time in solitude on the regular, but draws his musical inspiration from human interaction. He refers to his music as a “soundtrack to my life.”
Stoddard explained that being in quarantine has forced her to see her apartment in new ways and learn how to use angles and perspectives to achieve the look in mind. She no longer has access to models and actors and is getting around this obstacle by having friends send her videos that they have taken in locations hear their homes or videos of themselves.
She also has an archive of footage that has been accumulated over the years and that she can reference for use and inspiration.
“This quarantine has really reminded me of that. Be extra resourceful, be extra appreciative and make the most of not just material possessions, but also relationships and valuing other humans. Not just your friends and your family members, but everybody,” Stoddard said.
As New York City residents try to endure this pandemic, artists like Stoddard are learning to appreciate the micro-world around them. By trying to view their habitats in new ways and create new sounds to foster self-expression, the experience is made much more bearable. Even if there is restricted access to things such as your typical workplace and tools.
The video “Artist in Quarantine” is just one of many of Stoddard’s published works.
This video shows that even a national quarantine can not slow the creative juices of a mind at work. By networking with the right people and finding the right community, technology and inspiration, anything is possible. Even for artists in quarantine.
