quarantine keeps me negative
Victoria Belaire
University of Louisiana at Lafayette Honors Program
Keywords: creative submission, visual art, painting, drawing, multimedia, art, artwork
Abstract
“Quarantine keeps me negative,” 2020. Multimedia; acrylic paint, oil pastel, sticker, highlighter, pen, and wooden beads. I made this piece the day after getting tested for COVID-19, after seeing the sticker that told me I was negative for the virus. The fact that it was a sticker rather than some kind of receipt was novel to me, like a child getting a sticker when they pass a test in school. This piece was made in only a few hours in a fit of inspiration when the composition flashed into my head. I was tested not long after my birthday, which I spent at home with only my family. Quarantine, at first, had not affected me in the same way that other people immediately felt its consequences. Rather, it took me many months of losing self discipline and realizing my loneliness in isolation to feel the reality of the situation set in. Being in quarantine was like subjecting the whole world to one of my depressive episodes, which was an ironic comfort to me in the beginning. I realized that I grew to be so negative in quarantine, but at least I stayed negative.
