Quarantine Collages

Every few days during quarantine, I’d find a package on my doorstep that felt like Christmas morning. But this wasn’t an online delivery – this was art in motion.

During lock-down I was looking for a way to stay connected to my neighbors. We had a great group that got together monthly for anything related to wine: book club, games, movies. We called our time together “Side Yard Sundays” since we often met at our neighbor’s yard. That all vanished during quarantine. Suddenly, everything felt a little too quiet.

To start the project I gave everyone a board with one collage element on it. Instructions were loose: add something and pass it on to the next neighbor. So, from our respective homes, distracting ourselves from the fears and the unknowns of COVID-19, we cut, we pasted, we sewed, we drew, we colored, or otherwise added something to the boards and then passed them along. For months, we added and passed, added and passed, (at first leaving them isolated for 3 days like our groceries and mail—remember that?!) moving the boards in a clockwise direction. We worked until they seemed finished…and then added more boards into the rotation.

In the end, we collectively produced over fifty mixed-media (sometimes multi-dimensional) “Quarantine Collages”. It was fun to see the twists and turns each picture would take on its journey around the block and back again. A cat talking on the telephone, a chicken balancing on top of a man’s hat, musicians playing on the rim of a glass.

Our “Side Yard Sunday Project” members are David Bankes, Judi Murphy, Erin Murphy, Suzanne Hughes, Holly Logan, Tricia Way, and myself. The collages were displayed at the local Co-op Café in our neighborhood. All sale proceeds were donated to Portside Arts Center, to support their great work bringing the arts to our neighborhood!