Inspiration or interruption? How artists keep working through COVID-19 in Charlotte
Last month, 17 artists painted the words “Black Lives Matter” in different colors and designs along North Tryon Street.
Other murals by artists have emerged as well in the midst of social justice protests and the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Artist Jason Woodberry said he expects the work created over the next few months to shed light on this time of both quarantine and of protest.
Art serves as a reflection of the times, and after a period of quarantine, people have marched side by side, Woodberry said. “The world became very human,” Woodberry said. “And I think art had a lot to do with that.”
But as Charlotte’s artists are getting more attention for their art, that doesn’t mean the bills are getting paid.
Over the past few months, Charlotte artists have felt the impact of COVID-19. Some lost gigs, projects and plans — along with the majority of their income. But some have found a new inspiration for their projects, too.
An unlikely inspiration
Charlotte muralist Darion Fleming took a trip to the grocery store near the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in mid-March. Shelves were bare and supplies were unavailable.
“Everything was so serious at that time, and kind of scary and daunting,” Fleming said. “And I guess the way I deal with that is making light of things and finding humor.”
That night, he started planning a mural. He was in between projects and thought: “OK, well, I have a few weeks of availability and time, so why don’t I just pick up some spray paint and go paint something that I think the community would love.”
That grocery-store-inspired realization led to his piece “Pure’ll Gold,” on display across from the Hobbyist at 2100 N. Davidson St.
And it wasn’t just the community that loved this piece. Fleming’s mural, which depicts an open Purell bottle pouring liquid gold, spread rapidly on social media. Local media outlets and eventually The New York Times picked up his story.
Artists feel COVID-19’s impact
Muralist Osiris Rain was about to start painting a mural in Rock Hill when the effects of the pandemic first hit the area. The timeline for the work was pushed back, and the budget for the initiative was cut. “And then subsequently every job that I had lined up for the rest of the year disappeared,” Rain said.
The next hit was a mural festival Rain hosts called CanJam CLT. Initially slated for a week in November at the Hart Witzen Gallery Annex warehouse, Rain decided to space artists out over the year to avoid large crowds.
Now artists come to the warehouse and paint a section of the wall. “I had initially hoped that it would be a bit slower of a trickle, but since all the artists are out of work, they are just excited to go paint walls,” Rain said.
The festival lost most of its sponsors, Rain said. Artists participating have donated their murals for free, while the festival covers materials and food. Rain has paid most of the festival’s expenses out of pocket. He expects the festival to cost up to $15,000.
At the warehouse, Rain put up QR code banners that lead to a donation site for CanJamCLT. So far he said he has raised about $300.
Rain said while some artists received federal stimulus checks, many are having to rely on savings because self-employed artists can’t file for regular unemployment compensation. “It’s a mixture of a lot of side hustles for a majority of the people that I know,” Rain said.
Rain is now making money by revamping his online platform.
Last year, he closed down his online shop because he didn’t have enough time to fulfill all the orders rolling in. “And now it’s gone a complete 180, and it’s become my sole income,” Rain said.
Lost commissions
Pre-pandemic, Woodberry and Marcus Kiser had been commissioned for a stage design piece. Woodberry had previously been creating in two-dimensional mediums and this was going to be an opportunity to work on something he had always wanted to do.
He had planned designs inspired by some of his favorite artists and worked on an accompanying narrative and model.
Then it was all shut down.
Woodberry said he lost over $10,000 in future wages from the interruption of this project. But on the creative side, Woodberry also lost an opportunity to explore a new medium.
Finding motivation
From the beginning, creating during COVID-19 had its ups and downs. “It’s been a roller coaster of being motivated and having to force myself to be falsely motivated,” Rain said.
But CanJam has provided a community of support for artists during the pandemic. Inside the warehouse, artists have created camaraderie while both commiserating in their shared struggles and also exchanging ideas and tips. “It’s one of the best ways to get tips back and forth on how to run your small business more efficiently,” Rain said.
Through the canceled gigs, some artists have found the time to create for themselves. “It’s been a good excuse to paint things for me,” Rain said.
Woodberry chose to see this as an opportunity to explore and experiment.
At his day job, he works as a programmer, and “everything slowed down,” he said. As a person with an autoimmune illness, he said he is in no rush to return to normal, even as things pick back up in Phase Two of reopening in North Carolina.
Woodberry said he tries to do something every day to grow, whether by reading, sketching, participating in an online anatomy class or exploring new concepts.
Artwork during COVID-19
Fleming’s Purell mural came from wanting to work for his community. “I love art, obviously … I get a lot out of constantly creating new things. When I was just thinking of ways that I could potentially help and give back, that was just one of the things that struck me,” Fleming said.
More simply — he just wanted to make people laugh.
“I did it with the goal to have anyone who sees it to kind of get a laugh out of it, get a smile out of it,” Fleming said. “Get their minds off of some of the harsher things in their life right now.”
But with this tone of humor, there is a sense of guilt, Fleming said. “It brought me more work and it brought me more success, where I just basically made light of a pretty awful situation,” Fleming said.
Another work influenced by the global pandemic is Nick Napoletano’s mural on Rampart Street of a girl holding a flower, adorned with the phrase: “From the stillness, a seed of hope is planted.”
“Now more than ever, I think it’s important that we tend to and care for our local communities — our ‘local gardens’ — and begin to plant the seeds of hope,” Napoletano stated on his Instagram page.
“When you have 40 million people out of work, it creates this environment where people can express themselves openly now,” Napoletano told CharlotteFive. “There is an increased need for people to speak their truth .... and it allows people to also hear and think about what rebuilding can ultimately look like.”
Napoletano said be believes the best way forward is to think about what changes and shifts should be made and what the future should look like. “It’s not going to look like what it looked like before ... The future doesn’t look like the past.”
During the seclusion and isolation created by COVID-19, art provides a sense of solidarity and hope, Woodberry said.
“We’re all going through this thing as a collective,” Woodberry said. “It is inspiring to see people still creating and still being passionate about what they do.”
Looking ahead, Woodberry believes the nature of quarantine has strengthened communities by making intimacy more valuable and creating a space for deeper conversations. “The first hug you give somebody after this quarantine is over is going to be the best hug you ever gave,” he said.
This story was originally published June 11, 2020 at 1:57 PM.
