Throughout quarantine, I have been doing my best to remain creative. Sometimes this endeavour feels genuinely depressing rather than generative. I have been battling heightened and often debilitating anxiety since January. Returning home complicates these feelings for many reasons. I have deeply enjoyed being able to spend time in the woods, seeing my sister everyday, and am grateful to have a home to social distance in. Still, being stuck inside, I feel forced to revisit a loneliness that I had almost forgotten about. It’s the loneliness of my preteen self, of someone closeted, victimized, or bullied. The work that I am contributing is very similar to the type of collage that I enjoyed doing years ago. They feel to me like a return to a different version of myself. More than that, they are a sort of “quarantine diary”. I wanted to express both my appreciation for my home, nature, and the communities that I am a part of, as well as my fear of loneliness and illness. I miss being with people, I miss music, and I miss feeling understood. Luckily, this group has been a great source of joy throughout these past months. I am grateful to be in this community and to have “a place to go” on Saturday nights.
