inspiration
On this page we will share examples of past musical and visual artwork created during challenging historical events to inspire your creativity. Feel free to suggest your own.
Get Creative at Home / Painting
Imagine a Bird’s-Eye View of Your Neighborhood or Special Place
If you could fly over buildings and streets, what do you think you would see? Draw an aerial view of a special place... Click here to view article on the artwork of Nellie Mae Rowe.
Hear Susan Crawley, the High’s previous Curator of Folk and Self-Taught Art, discuss Nellie Mae Rowe’s works in this video.
The Great Depression 1940 / Painting
Oil Painter Edward Hopper's painting entitled, Gas
Created in 1940, just after The Great Depression. It definitely expresses that feeling of isolation which is something we can relate to during this time in our lives. Click here to read more.
The Great Depression 1930s / Photography
Many of us have an image of what the Great Depression looked like -- even if we weren't there. One reason is because of Dorothea Lange's photographs. Click here to view article.
COVID-19 Pandemic 2020 / Street Art
What does art mean to the human experience?
Humans have been producing art before they were even human. We’ve found wonderful cave paintings, Neanderthal decorative art. There’s an innate need to relate our experience, and I think a lot of art is also about relating with each other. It’s about trying to transmit one’s experience to others or create experiences together in a more classical ritual. The way we understand art now, in western history, is a tiny dot in the history of humankind’s relationship with producing art. But an integral part of human existence is producing art. It will always be a necessity. There’s this idea that it’s only produced when you have all your other basic needs taken care of, but art is a basic need.
Rafael Schacter—anthropologist and curator focusing on public and global art, senior teaching fellow in material culture at the University College London and author of The World Atlas of Street Art and Graffiti—about the current coronavirus art movement. Schacter addressed why the art is so important to our collective experience during this pandemic, and what it means for the art world in the future.
Link to interview here
Here's a slideshow of random COVID-19 related images for your inspiration...
“Don’t think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it’s good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.”
— Andy Warhol
