Strange Days Indeed

Nobody told me there'd be days like these

Nobody told me there'd be days like these

Nobody told me there'd be days like these

Strange days, indeed!

Most peculiar, Mama!

~John Lennon



No one will ever say that 2020 hasn't been a more eventful year than usual and we're not even half way through it.


It started with horrific wild fires in Australia that killed millions of animals, followed by plagues of locusts in Africa. Meanwhile, a particularly deadly new coronavirus emerged from China and rapidly spread around the world, hitting America very hard. As of this writing about 6.75 million people have been confirmed infected with the virus globally, though the number is probably MUCH higher as testing is still not readily available, (almost 2 million infected in the US) and close to 700 thousand are dead (over 110 thousand of those in the US alone). Tens of millions are unemployed as everything has closed up and people are mandated to stay at home in self-quarantine to slow the spread of the disease. Schools closed in March and have not reopened. Shortages of toilet paper, hand sanitizers, and cleaning supplies, and also of meat, as the meat packing industry was hard hit with many employees down with the virus. There are lines at grocery stores as they limit the number of people allowed in at one time, but at least we can shop, despite the shortages. Most people are heeding the warnings to wear masks and distance themselves from others, at least where I am where the infection rate has been very high, but in other places people scoff at the danger and claim the suggestion of wearing masks and social distancing violates their rights. Most people where I am are more sensible. Stores, including art galleries are closed, and the art organizations here have been unable to open, canceling all exhibits including my two solo shows that were scheduled for the 2020 season. Sales for most artists are WAY off. And now, to add to the insanity, protests and rioting all over the country set off by the killing of a black man by police in Minneapolis, witnessed by many and recorded for the world to see. That was the tipping point (and the tip of the iceberg) for so many people, myself included. We are a divided nation, probably not so divided since the Civil War, for a variety of reasons. At just shy of 68 years old, I have never, ever seen anything quite like what has been going on and even after the dangers have passed, I don't see us ever getting back to anything that we perceived as "normal" life. Those days are gone. These are the interesting times that the old Chinese curse spoke of that we are doomed to live through.

I am still making art. In fact, after a brief time of slacking off when my son moved back to Maine on the last day of February, just as the pandemic was making itself known, I have been painting up a storm. I think for many people in the arts, times like this brings our need to express our creativity to the forefront. Eventually, all of these stresses to our "normal" lives will resolve, for good or ill, and whatever the "new normal" might manifest as, we'll get on with it.


Now, let's see what else Mother Nature will hurl at us in the middle of all of the man-made mayhem as this cursed year wears on, reminding us that it's hers to decide if we frail beings will keep our tenuous grasp on our place on this planet.