Twelfth International Conference on The Image

Abstract

As an Art History Instructor, in addition to standard writing assignments, I include projects that allow students to create, giving them opportunity to understand the process of making art. Students learn that art is often a reflection of cultures, beliefs, traditions, and experiences. The images they produce are creative outlets that allow for expression of their feelings and provide students with a means to communicate those feelings to others. What has been astounding and somewhat heartbreaking, are the profound differences in students’ artwork since the coronavirus pandemic. Their pictures are more impactful, meaningful, relatable, and personal since March 2020. Of course, the pandemic has not affected each student in the same way, but there are commonalities to be found within their creations. The transformative quality of their images reveals a shift in societal normativity, highlighting the change in standards of acceptable behaviors and emphasizing loneliness, and the unsettling condition of the unknown. In this study, I share artwork drawn from several assignments that show the students’ perspectives and reveal their responses to life during COVID-19. Together with written summaries of their work, their powerful, often emotional images expose the psychological and physical impact that the weight of the coronavirus crisis has had on this generation of young adults, who are nearing the end of their education and about to embark on their life’s journeys. The students’ images offer myriad reactions and responses to this world-wide event that has so altered their lives and over which they have had no control.