To suffer and ESCAPE

For the last few months I had been dealing with the health issues of an aging parent. All my art related activity had stopped, and I focused on family.

When I did return to painting, plans that were previously made were alien to me. Everything felt very distorted, not an artist’s block, but a disconnect as I was living with more tension than usual. Being a painter is the worst occupation to deal with these emotions. Men’s pride demanded me to work through it.

The Covid pandemic made this situation worse as the new variant Omicron had appeared just as we believed it was coming to an end.

Courtesy of Toronto Star

Note: At the time of this writing, Ottawa is under a siege against the Covid Vaccine Mandate. A grassroots movement called The Freedom Convoy, Canadian truck drivers have set up a Occupation of protest outside of Parliament hill. This movement continues to grow throughout Canada into different provinces.Ontario is now under a State of Emergency.The downtown core of Ottawa is still under occupation and in its 17th day.

2021 had become a mirror image of 2020 except differently distorted and disturbing. Many people were frustrated as traveling had become limited. Vaccine passports have been forced alongside covid masks as a necessity to our daily lives. For the unvaccinated, this had become a barrier to employment, a divided argument among families, and a prison for passionate travelers. Homebound, I could relate to what they were feeling, and wanted to be somewhere else.

Whatever I was going to do next would be living with this tension. I started thinking of ESCAPE, how tight that window of opportunity was for most people, and knew I could not go anywhere. Winter was coming.

Escape drawing. Pencil on kraft paper. 2022

Originally, all I was thinking about was the weather, but then the animals started to come. The Tiger was not planned, and I would find out later that 2022 was the Chinese new year of the Tiger. Interesting synchronicity.

I continued with this idea and developed a painting with no certainty to what was coming next.

Friedrich Nietzsche is always quoted by others as saying “To live is to suffer..” but they often leave out the second line which is the most important part, “to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering.”

I didn’t find any meaning in this suffering. However, if there is someone else going through a similar situation. My hope is, this article helps them feel a little less alone.

Victor

Under lockdown and SELF ANALYSIS

It has been a year since the Pandemic first arrived in 2020.
Most people were urged to stay in their homes, social distance from each other, wash their hands and wear a mask when you go outside.
We are all too familiar with this now, the new “reality”, and I am no different.

The painting Self Analysis developed quite mildly during this period.
I was finishing up some other projects previously when the Virus broke out.
The plans I had made previously began to change.
What was originally seen as a form of the Flu, began to take a sinister turn.
As like many, I was forced to work from home, and restrict my interaction with others. It was quite an adjustment.

The restriction of freedom in the name of public health was one I accepted.
But, one could not really be prepared for the length of time that this would occur.
The normal things I liked doing, eating out, shopping, and visiting friends and family were all taken away. The only communication I had of the outside world was through social media and television.
I was left only with my home and creativity.

The routine of being under lockdown was making me feel lethargic. Ironically, that is when it hit me, that the couch had become an island, and it was time to escape. The idea of fear and mental health started to resonate.

The fear was all around, from walking with my mask on and passing by people in the street, through to conversations I’ve had with others. Covid-19 had cast it’s shadow on world and each of us were dealing with it in our own way.

There was also the fear of expressing any opinions about it. The media had inundated everyone with information. The wearing of masks had become a political issue. What had become a health crisis has divided people. The mask for some had become a symbol of the oppression of freedom, and censorship. To others, it was been a lifeline of health, safety and survival. New Vaccines have come out to combat the virus.
The distribution to the public is still a contentious issue.

Here we still are in 2021, a moment in time uncertain when or if this will ever end.

Victor Ramirez

THE ART OF VICTOR RAMIREZ© All written articles and visual images are the copyright and creation of Victor H. Ramirez-vichramirez2015, and not affiliated with rhometechdesign.com