Art in the time of COVID-19

Published 7:00 am Friday, March 27, 2020

Toilet paper, Hand sanitizer and Prescriptions — these are not the most common subjects depicted in works of art. But COVID-19 wasn’t common until recently, either.

Jen Bagley is an Ironton resident who has started using Gov. Mike Dewine’s stay at home order as an opportunity to brighten up her corner of the city. Using sidewalk chalk, she has created images on a portion of the floodwall next to her home.

“I’ve painted a few murals in the past and absolutely loved it. Having recently moved to a town surrounded by walls has had me daydreaming of covering them in color since I got here,” the Indiana native said. “A couple weeks ago when the first spring flowers were beginning to bloom, I drew some daffodils and crocuses on the wall to welcome my boyfriend home from work with. We have really great neighbors and they were pretty excited about the pictures, so I decided that when these wash away that I’ll just keep doing new drawings. At least until I run out of chalk.”

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In addition to her floral illustrations, she has drawn inspiration from current events. While she was already homeschooling her children, Sol and Aria, who also contributed to the flood wall artwork, the current pandemic is still having an effect.

“We’ve never seen anything quite like this before, and with the current economic situation, I feel like we all may experience some longer-term lifestyle adjustments,” she said. Bagley said, since most of the changes surrounding the pandemic are out of her control, she plans to keep her loved ones close, draw more, laugh as much as possible and, of course, wash her hands.

If you see any works of art brightening up our Tri-State community, feel free to share them with us at briefs@irontontribune.com and they may be featured in an upcoming edition of The Ironton Tribune.