Poems, paintings and cat nests: What SLO County residents created during COVID-19
San Luis Obispo County’s shelter-at-home order led to a time of massive creativity for local residents.
The extra time at home prompted dozens of locals to pick up their paintbrushes, scissors and glue guns. But they lacked the usual methods to showcase their works; art galleries and museums have been shuttered for months.
So The Tribune made a call for submissions, asking for any artworks created during the coronavirus pandemic. And boy, did local artists and craftspeople deliver.
More than 50 people submitted their shelter-at-home creations, with many sending in multiple pieces. We received paintings, chalk art, short stories, cooking shows and even a cat nest.
Now that local shelter-at-home restrictions seem to be winding to a close, it’s a great time to look back at all the amazing creations they made.
How to experience the virtual art gallery
If you would like the full immersive art gallery experience, make sure to click “enter full screen” from the upper right corner menu of the gallery link above.
Use the arrows or your mouse to move around the virtual art space. Clicking on specific pieces will bring you closer to them, and clicking on the “i” symbol in the right corner when you do so will bring up more information from the artist on their creation.
Note: Some of the pieces are large files that may take a few minutes to load. If images at first appear blurry or videos don’t play, allow them some time to load, or refresh your browser.
You can also view a full list of artworks, as well as artists’ names, included in the exhibition in the right corner drop down menu.
Having problems loading the gallery above? You can also view it at this link: https://artspaces.kunstmatrix.com/en/exhibition/1186036/the-tribunes-virtual-stay-at-home-art-gallery .
More to come in summer 2020
Want to highlight your work? The Tribune will be updating new galleries with multiple submissions throughout the summer.
A writing-specific version will also be published by The Tribune to highlight short stories, essays or poetry written during the shelter-at-home order.
To submit creations for future galleries, fill out the form at https://forms.gle/MXBftTBQqsCce2gg7 or email digital versions of your work directly to Tribune reporter Kaytlyn Leslie at kleslie@thetribunenews.com.
This story was originally published June 3, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
%20Cropped.jpg)