Screentime

Two mice fighting. Two very small mice fighting in London’s underground subway station, caught on film in Station Squabble, posted on social media, and running on a loop in my mind’s eye. In March of 2020, when the governor of our state ordered us to stay “Safer at Home,” this was the image swirling around in my brain.

If I was forced to stay inside, I would play. Using some of my favorite art images, studio paraphernalia – boxes, cords, and childhood toys – my desktop became a stage and a screen. Two mice fighting became stars on this stage, while my toy mice and toy dog look on. They watch themselves watching the fighting mice. We are all stars on the internet.

I made 14 Screentime paintings between March 2020 and April 2021. The last one, Group Meditation, is an homage to Philip Guston. The other paintings in this series feature closeup views of desktop dioramas. My intention was to pan out, showing a more distanced view of collaged images of his work. Through this, I planned to conclude this series and the confinement of this lockdown. I had just received my second vaccine and desired to escape through my studio window to the outside world.

As I write this in January of 2022, we are no longer in lockdown, but the Corona Virus still swirls and mutates in the air, it may not be more deadly, but it is infecting more people faster. It is uncertain when we will be completely free from this virus, but I know that I can find safety in my studio, blissfully alone, at once a fan, and star of my own stage.