A poignant look at pandemic’s effects
Art project lets young adults give life to grief
SAN ANTONIO — A group of college students expressed the inconceivable toll the pandemic has taken on their experience of young adulthood in an art display at the University of Texas at San Antonio.
The academic and social lives of teens and 20-somethings have suffered as a result of mass schools cancellations and closures. In many cases, campuses were deserted, extracurricular activities were suspended and classes moved to Zoom or Microsoft Teams.
“Academically, it’s really affected my life,” said Bleah Patterson, a UTSA senior creative writing major. “You know, I was just talking to a professor the other day, and I started crying. And I was like, ‘I’m not the same person I was before COVID.’ Like, I’m not the same kind of student. And everything feels so much harder and heavier than it did before.”
The showcase, titled “Defining Moments,” represented a collaboration of the school’s budding historians, writers, musicians, artists, dancers and architects.
It started with history majors writing reflections on the significance of the moment. Then, English majors penned poems and essays on the reflections.
After that, music composition majors composed music, and art majors created pieces inspired by the poems and essays. Dance majors developed choreography influenced by the reflections. Finally, architecture majors designed a physical exhibition space for the creations.
The fruits of their labor were revealed in an extended performance at the Buena Vista Theater downtown. Students gave life to the grief that followed foiled plans, missed chances and the enormous gulf between what could have been and what was.
Patterson’s poem, “Persistent Hope,” compared the pandemic to a traffic accident. She shared that her ex-boyfriend died of COVID-19 in summer 2020.
“It really didn’t hit me until I was halfway through fall semester, and then I dropped out,” Patterson said. “So I actually was gone for a year, and I just came back this semester.”
Senior art major Itzel Vilches’ multi-block print “Disinfect” depicts COVID-19-related objects, including a face mask and bottle of hand sanitizer.
Its centerpiece is a woman clutching a human heart and a cellphone in gloved hands, her expression as solemn as that of a medieval Madonna. In the background, a coronavirus particle, sides studded with the spike proteins that enable it to invade human cells, hovers like a menacing blimp.
Like Patterson, Vilches also witnessed the virus infect her nearest and dearest. Both her sister and parents have contracted COVID-19 around New Year’s.
“They grew pretty ill. None of them had to go to the hospital, thankfully, but it was scary to see them struggle breathing,” Vilches said.
Both Patterson and Vilches indicated the “Defining Moments” experience was positive and affirming. The cascade format represented an innovative way to develop and maintain connections even in the midst of the pandemic because it fostered a sense of solidarity.
By engaging with one another’s innermost thoughts and feelings in the form of creative work, the students involved realized they were not alone in battling fear, sorrow, anxiety and everything in between.
“It’s a big deal because it creates a community,” Patterson said. “It creates a community of people who are affected.”
“Everything feels so much harder and heavier than it did before.”
Bleah Patterson, UTSA senior creative writing major