Art Beat

Stories start in many different ways. This one started with an email and ended with a phone call, weeks into an unexpected and surreal public health pandemic that’s forcing people across the world to stay in their homes.

Like everyone reading this, I didn’t expect to wake up each day feeling more and more like I’m in a sci-fi novel. Coincidentally enough, the name of this worldwide scourge is named the 2019 Novel Coronavirus, or COVID-19 for short.

After successfully launching my first art column I was excited to start on the next. Shortly after the first printed, I already had a lead to start collecting information.

Someone from the community sent me an email saying they saw my column and suggested that I contact Steel Art Alaska owner Kristopher Rising, who creates custom, painted steel works in the community.

Before Rising and I could connect, our newsroom’s priorities quickly shifted to COVID-19, and that’s the majority of what we’re writing about now. I realized it would be impossible for me to write another column without connecting it to the topic of coronavirus.

As more people end up stuck at home due to social distancing, finding ways to keep your sanity, let alone express your creativity, is becoming all the more important. People are also getting stir crazy and lonely while being cut off from their peers and regular social outings.

I figured the best thing I could write and talk to local creatives about is something we all can relate to, especially those of us raising families. This article is all about finding mentally stimulating and creative activities to occupy one’s time during home quarantines and maintaining social connections through technology.

This column is geared towards anyone who wishes to express themselves in one form or another, whether it’s just writing down your feelings or painting with a group over video messenger.

With school out indefinitely and 2020 graduation ceremonies canceled, parents of all walks of life are finding themselves in a new position, homeschool teacher. Families across the Valley are figuring out how to keep their kids’ minds active without losing theirs in the process.

Local businesses like Paint Nights With Sara are keeping up with the social isolation with online classes, a service they’ve offered before but never anticipated using it so much so soon.

The studio doors are closed to the public, but owner Sara McKinley and her colleagues are still offering online classes and selling art kits to families with children ages 2 to 14.

While being stuck at home isn’t ideal (especially if you’re out of the job), but this strange time does have a silver lining, you have all this newfound time to get to spend quality time with your kids. Heck, you may even learn something new about them.

“I just think it's a great time for all of us to learn,” McKinley said. “Be the student with them.”

Many parents may find themselves in a rut or running out of ideas to keep their kids engaged. McKinley said that she likes to have her kids write down ideas on little pieces of paper so they can put them all in a jar. Pull out an idea and go from there.

She noted the jar trick isn’t just for art. It can be used for anything. Parents can use this to come up with ideas on how to study school subjects while empowering the kids to make independent decisions and enjoy the process more. She said there’s no “rights or wrongs.”

“It's just about them being creative, being able to express themselves, especially now with all these emotions going on,” McKinley said. “If it’s just one scribble, that's fine.”

One of the most important things to keep in mind, especially those households finding themselves on a budget that stretches thinner and thinner every day is the fact that you can quickly start a creative project with simple household items. It can all start with a pen or pencil and some paper.

“You don't need a whole lot of supplies,” McKinley said.

Creative activities no matter the subject are best enjoyed with others. A good friend of mine has some tips on how get the creative juices flowing without breaking the bank and maintaining social distancing practices.

"Anything involving color is going to help keep people going right now," Local artist and Palmer Buzz writer Barbara Hunt said.

Hunt suggested using even the most basic of mediums, whether it’s crayons or a kids' watercolor set.

"You need to just play a little bit. And don't worry about creating something to hang. It's the action of painting or coloring that calms nerves,” Hunt said. "If you have some salt, throw it in your watercolor. It will make really organic shapes and repel the pigments. If you have rubbing alcohol, toss that in the paint [in a separate cup] and you will see some crazy art action going.’

Hunt said that she’s using Zoom video conferencing to keep in touch with seven people in her Palmer Art Illustrated Journal class amid the coronavirus pandemic, so they’re “all safe at home but interconnected.”

“I personally think staying connected is what will keep us going in these strange times. It is easy to feel afraid. Sometimes when people are anxious, all the color drains out of their life. But we don't have to live in a weird world of black and white. We are going to bring back the art and the color,” Hunt said.

Here’s one last tip from my own life, a quick and easy creative activity for families usually dubbed “Folded Story.” This is best suited for children ages five and older. The only supplies you need is a piece of paper and a pen or pencil.

I learned this playful storytelling game in elementary school. It’s best played with a group because it’s an add-on story.

One person starts the game by writing a few sentences of a story before folding the paper so only the last line of writing can be seen. Once it passes to the next person, that person reads the sentence and adds on to the story with their ideas, folding the paper again. This continues until the last person in the group writes an ending.

Note: you can do this activity without paper. Simply pass the story in a circle, restate what the last person said and add your segment. That’s actually how I first played this game. I don’t know what the heck we called it then.

For children, teens and adults alike, expressing your creativity, no matter how or in what capacity can really make a difference; especially if you broaden your definition of creativity. Crayons aren’t just for kids and art isn’t just fot artists. I suggest picking up an old hobby or trying your hand at a new one.

“Try to create as much as you can,” McKinley said.

Remodeling the bathroom is just as creative as painting a landscape. You many not think of yourself as “creative” in the stereotypical sense, but creativity even in it’s most simplest of forms can do wonders for your brain activity and overall sense of being.

My dad is a welder and just about the most conservative, red blooded American that ever lived. He grumpily tirades against his physically demanding career that consumes most of his waking hours.

Every once in awhile, my dad welds a custom piece of work like a silhouette of Alaska on his own time. While he probably wouldn’t admit to me or even himself how much fun he really has working on little projects like that with his own hands on his own inclination, I wager it’s probably more than he realizes.

Little things like that can make you feel good and right now, we should all do what we can to feel good and see if we can help someone else do the same.

Maybe I’ll end up writing about that Steel Art Alaska guy after all.

Paint Nights With Sara regularly donates art kits to local families in need. Parents who are struggling financially can email their situation to paintnightswithsara@gmail.com.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman reporter Jacob Mann at jacob.mann@frontiersman.com