JaamZIN Creative COVID special edition II.

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Contents: Ahmed Borai, 5 Alexandr Mihaltchuk, 6 Ezra Bejar, 7 George Appletree, 8 Michael Nguyen, 9 Sherry Krivosheev, 10 Anastasiia Vasylenko, 11 Carlos - Julian Engles, 12 Elwira Bernaciak, 13 Mauriel Schoenmaekers, 14 Kaushik Dolui, 15 Paul Koskinen, 16 Bernard Moutin, 17 Ajay P. Kothari, 18 Jordan Plotnek, 19

Impressum

Jacco de Jager, 20

JaamZin Creative UXScoops Pte. Ltd. Singapore Registration No.: 201601782G

Ellen Dieter, 21 Lorette C. Luzajic, 22 Marly Joseph Desir, 23 Stephen Gibb, 24 - 25

Editor: Anastasiia Vasylenko Graphic designer: Anastasiia Vasylenko Web: www.jaamzin.com Email: info@jaamzin.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jaamzinstudio/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jaamzin/ Address: 1 Scotts Road #24-05 Shaw Centre, Singapore

Photo by Hakan Nural on Unsplash

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The pandemic has affected the life of every single person on the planet. We are forced to live in self-isolation, left to ourselves for more than a year now, which could not pass the artist community without notice as well.

Without a doubt, working alone has benefited some creators, causing inspiration block to the rest.

In absence of social interaction and outside movement limited, most artists had to turn inwards for inspiration. That resulted in truly personal and reflectional art being created.

Therefore, JaamZIN Creative has decided to gather artworks of artists around the world to create the second COVID-19 related artworks edition.

Flip the pages to see the results.

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Ahmed Borai Hiker to the other space - Keyholes, painting on newspaper 2020

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Am I looking into a room through the keyhole or looking out through a locked door?

The keyhole allows both directions. The decisive factor is the location of the viewer and his situation is he looking in or out, is inside-outside or vice versa?

The keyhole is a gateway to other rooms.

Art is that keyhole, especially in difficult times, it creates a passage for a ray of light, a symbol of hope that will open doors.

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Alexandr Mihaltchuk

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Untitled

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Ezra Bejar The Trap, acrylic painting on canvas 2021 Size: 40 W x 30 H x 0.8 D in

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Inspired by the recent changes in our culture due to the SARSCov-2 pandemic. This piece resonates with us and our new circumstances. It is open to different interpretations and possibilities. But, one view is a person close to other members of her family or group, may feel emotionally closer now more than ever. Unfortunately, handling her physical spaces and communications may be challenging at times. Hungry for privacy may fall into the trap of anger and hostility.

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George Appletree For sale

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For a while, we thought it was to be over.

But later everything is closed again; longer and closer than first.

Hope? Perhaps, but nothing will be the same.

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Michael Nguyen The Poetry of Urban Spaces, A Melancholic Journey

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Michael Nguyen roamed various cities in Bavaria during the Corona pandemic. A focus of his works since COVID-19 are urban landscapes as well as urban spaces in different cities. Urban spaces can all enrich a life between buildings. Sports facilities, parking lots, bus stops, children’s playgrounds, sidewalks, bike racks, shopping mall forecourts, and more are all places where necessary, voluntary, and social outdoor activities are possible and offer the opportunity to grow social life in the city. Since Covid-19, social interaction in the Urban landscapes with their spaces has lain fallow. Michael Nguyen conveys this sensitively in his mostly «deserted pictures». Nguyen enters the motifs of his urban landscapes with a great deal of empathy. He makes the city, urban landscapes, and architecture visible and documents them for posterity. With his artistic documentary photography, he refers to a reality that we all know but interprets this reality with his images.

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Sherry Krivosheev Rushing To The Rescue” Pastels on paper, 18”x24”

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As a maritime artist, the image of the US naval ship on its way to NYC during the pandemic really brought some comfort!

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Anastasiia Vasylenko Girl with a Pearl Earring - COVID Parody underpainting on canvas, 2020

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The idea behind this artwork was to make a parody of an old painting of Vermeer and give it a modern look. And what can be more symbolic nowadays than a mask?

This work is unfinished. I planned to finish it once the COVID situation was resolved. However, everything points to it not happening any soon.

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Carlos - Julian Engles Wait acrylic painting on canvas Size: 40 cm x 40 cm

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I created this artwork during the lockdown. It’s my memory of my neighbor.

The girl in the picture is frustrated because she is not allowed to meet her friends and lover. She had enough and lost the will to go outside.

And she asks herself: what can I do?

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Elwira Bernaciak When Pinocchio Lies acrylic painting on canvas 2020 Size: 50 cm x 40 cm

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My painting is a simplified demonstration of the approach to this situation. Nobody says that a healthy and natural diet is enough for our immune system to cope with viruses and infections.

It is my sharp, colorful protest against a lie.

Painting allows us to express frustration and to clear our thoughts when we cannot have any other influence on the environment.

Seeking the truth is my goal, and healing my husband through nature and plants is proof that someone is lying to us here.

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Mauriel Schoenmaekers

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if words could be silent purity was visible as hope in our minds I whisper your sentences like a smile on your lips

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Kaushik Dolui Frustrated Life

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Looking at the present situation it seems that we started life with a slow space. One always has to live with fear and anxiety.

The pandemic is an impulse that triggers some new social and individual norms which is very different from our previous life.

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Paul Koskinen

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While 2020 was the year titled «Bourne of Pandemic, 2021 will be known as «Rise from Pandemic».

This’s year’s works will display a brighter & more playful outlook as the world continues to make progress during the struggle for recovery.

While we all have to remain vigilant and observe the basic safety precautions, the heath protected and lives saved will be more than worth it. All everyone has to do is remain guarded and keep an eye on the brighter future ahead!!

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Bernard Moutin Tentative d’oubli Size: 100 cm x 73 cm

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Showing a group of young people dancing in a church, a place remaining open during confinement.

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Ajay P. Kothari Fighting the Invisible Enemy

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I have tried to depict an expression of fighting with the full force of entire humanity - but with some trepidation too! The trepidation comes from the Jain philosophy of not hurting any life forms anywhere – including germs that harm us. Of course the COVID-19 virus. This may sound convoluted but it is there nevertheless out of Jain and Buddhist philosophies of kindness to all at the risk of self-sacrifice.

Personally, I am Jain though I believe in ridding humanity of this virus that this question, confusion still lingers.

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Jordan Plotnek Pandemia acrylic on canvas Size: 48’’ x 36’’

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Pandemia

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Jacco de Jager Armor V2

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Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/donorbrain/

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Ellen Dieter Lost at Sea acrylic on canvas Size: 18 cm x 18 cm

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My work “Lost at Sea” is an 18x18 acrylic on canvas. Lost At Sea was painted during the Shelter-in-Place order at the beginning of the Covid-19 Pandemic.

I was feeling rudderless as we were facing something we’ve never faced before. Our lives were pulled out from under us and fear of contracting the virus loomed. When you are out at sea in a little boat, can’t see any land around, that’s the feeling I was going for in the painting as I was feeling it in life.

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Lorette C. Luzajic Queen of the Coronavirus mixed media on canvas Size: 12 cm x 12 cm

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Covid has become a part of our culture, our mindset, our story. It is a nightmare from old fairy tales and other warnings about plagues and the danger lurking under the surface of everyone and everything we encounter.

I created a series that tackled my qualms and concerns with a bit of cheeky irreverence, a souvenir, I hope, of a time soon to become a memory.

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Marly Joseph Desir Coronavirus Impact acrylic on canvas Size: 24’’ x 2o’’

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This painting made in 2020, is describing the unforeseen challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic that has taken a significant toll on people all across the world. This phenomenon is killing a lot of people in the world. How to resolve this pandemic by science or by using spirituality...

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Stephen Gibb Last Days of the Plague oil on panel Size: 36’’ x 24’’

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Breaking down the images Safe as houses: What could be safer than isolation in your own home? The thing is, as we learned in 2020, you still need to interact with outsiders in the society and culture we have created. Bringing outside threat into the home is a concern and the fearful–looking house and house ablaze symbolizes that fear.

Protection: The prophylactic use of masks as protection from the virus is echoed in the plague-doctor crow and the deep-sea diving suit, both fearful enough to wear protective clothing but still threatened by contamination. The crow and diver being attacked by the piranha were two of the first and original ideas. The crow tries to reinforce the crumbling wall oblivious to the poison gas dancing around his feet. The sun masks the smell of decay with a clothespin but the ineffective defense is futile against the underlying factor present in the “plague”.

The Plague: I wanted to represent the “plague” as a color and the antifreeze green or Mountain Dew yellow seemed perfect to symbolize it. Originally the source was to be from the troll, oozing from his nose and mouth, contaminating the water and by extension into the food and drink of the townspeople, and leaching into the eco-system as well. The locust, a symbol of plague, was an after-thought but was needed to balance the composition (as were the pumpkin, the bubbles, and the Soviet-era missile) I am the Eggman: Yes, that’s me, recovering from a broken ankle while I painted this. I am vulnerable and frail as Humpty Dumpty, trying to ward off the plague by distancing myself from human contact (even further than usual).

Pop Surrealism Art: Yeah I know, WTF does that mean? It means people search the web for pop surrealism art and that ultimately brings them to me…

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After resisting the sort of automatic response that the year 2020 prompted— mainly as a result of the pandemic crisis of Covid-19, I finally relented.

There is only so much one can take with the onslaught of media and the reports that propagate fear and disseminate ignorance before you start to manifest a reaction. It was with fear and ignorance that this painting took root.

Basing the initial thoughts around the centrally positioned “troll under the bridge” I thought I could divide the painting into two halves, where the left represented fear and the right represented ignorance but that was just the launch pad.

A painting seldom blossoms from the core concept into a fully realized representation of that concept. It often transforms into something else as the idea incubates and I ponder the elements of the composition. This painting represents a prime example of that kind of deviation from the original whim—a transformation into something more ambitious with a broader scope of themes.

As well as the initial themes of ignorance and fear, the image now includes commentary on superstition, plague, decay, pollution, contamination, and irresponsibility. Time to apply my brand of pop surrealism art to the painting