Seeing meaning in the everyday
When everything around us has changed, even the way we create is different. In some cases, it’s given us the time to slow down and contemplate; to be mindful of what we’re seeing and how we interpret it.
For Toronto artist Alison Kruse, pandemic life has caused her to dig deeper, to focus on specifics, to ask “why” about her interests.
“I have always been interested in the mysteries of unseen forces, energy, and magic but have trouble articulating what this influence has in my body of work,” she writes in a note about her latest work.
She is an oil painter. She describes her work as “emotional,” she told Princeton’s Town Topics community newspaper. “It’s very expressive and, although I’m experimenting with different styles, the undertone is always filled with some type of intense emotion.”
Now, in contemplating her art before the pandemic, she notes that “I would work off a singular image, completing the painting fairly quickly, use a high chroma palette, and quick broad brushstrokes to replicate energy — but for what reason? I liked the idea of catching a moment in time but lacked depth or reason why this intrigued me so.”
Pandemic life has intensified that.
The work “The Hours,” above, was shown in Gallery 1313’s recent Art Parkdale Fair International, aimed at giving the public a chance to see art in person as well as online — the pandemic, of course, making most of our appreciation virtual.
“More time indoors has made me think of my own personal world orbiting on a continuous loop,” Kruse writes.
“I think of my daily routine, my past meeting my present and the premonition of the future in a single moment like repurchasing eggs because I’ve run out and need something for tomorrow’s breakfast.
“The intention of my work is to prompt the idea of mindfulness and the present because our future is so uncertain.”
And so, as our world becomes smaller, mindfulness gives our daily lives meaning. Even our usual routines, when contemplated, become an expression of our lives. In the mundane tasks we all share, we find a deeper connection. Kruse’s work is online until the end of December at gallery1313.org or on her website at alisonkruse.com.