As a response to the pandemic and its inherent lonely panic, some of my fellow artists produced art meant to comfort themselves and others. I wanted to follow their example, since it seemed like a good idea, but based on eyewitness reports, my art isn’t particularly soothing to me or anyone else.
At one point, however, after being isolated and scared for several months, I decided to calm myself down by doing a squiggle drawing.
Do you remember squiggle drawings? Most people have done squiggle drawings as children and maybe continue to make similar renderings as adults. Basically the technique is to use a crayon to draw continuous-line swirly loops all over a piece of paper and then color in the spaces with more crayons. Using crayons as the art medium is the key to connecting with your inner child. My theory was that by rendezvousing with my childhood experience, where I usually felt happy and safe, I’d produce a soothing piece of tranquilizing artwork.
Alas, my pandemic squiggle drawing ended up looking like “The Scream,” the famous Edvard Munch painting. I actually kind of like it and installed it on a metal file cabinet next to a printout of my favorite Charles Bukowski quote, the one Matt Dillon narrates in the final scene of the movie “Factotum” while watching the pole dancer at Augie’s.
Pandemic Self-portrait, 2020, crayons on bristol paper, 12” x 9”