Comfort, creativity battle COVID stress in art class

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This article was published 21/12/2020 (1740 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It was only fitting the panels on which students were tasked with painting comforting messages in Brody McQueen’s Grade 12 art class this term were customized to be six-feet tall.

“Be the reason someone feels heard,” states the board made by McQueen and his project partner, Shakira Rampersad.

Among phrases on the other panels, which will all be hung up in Winnipeg’s Maples Collegiate in the new year, were “Take a break” and “Good things are coming.”

One of visual arts teacher Stacey Abramson’s many therapeutic projects, the 1970s-style panels provided high school seniors an opportunity to brainstorm validating phrases that do not perpetuate toxic positivity — otherwise known as pretending everything is OK when it is not.

As far as McQueen’s concerned, things have not felt OK for much of 2020.

He is spending half as much time in physical classes as he did last year, he is anxious daily about whether his peers or teachers have COVID-19, and he’s planning for post-secondary amid a pandemic.

“I’ve been using art as a crutch,” said the 18-year-old, whose favourite medium is photography, during an interview after school Thursday.

“That is really how I’ve been coping with the feelings of isolation and just feeling overloaded and almost like I’m drowning.”

Public schools look a lot different this school year than they have in previous years, with social-distancing stickers and COVID-19 signage plastered everywhere. One of the few constants is the student-made artwork in hallways and the creative outlet for many that is art class.

The president of the Manitoba Association for Art Education, Dawn Knight, said art teachers have always been known as educators who have a “soft underbelly,” but more than ever, this year, they are helping students process hard feelings.

“Something artists are amazing at is working with ambiguity. What we teach in our classes, in our subject areas, is the idea of working towards something when you don’t really know exactly what the end is going to be, and that’s totally what this whole time is about,” Knight said.

Finding comfort in drawing, painting and other forms of art-making were common themes in a fall mental health survey of students at Fort Richmond Collegiate, where Knight teaches grades 10-12 art.

Knight’s students have created sculptures of their favourite places of refuge and self-portraits — many of them with face masks on, this term.

Given the distancing and masking required, both Knight and Abramson said their classroom discussions are no longer as lively as they used to be.

Clinical psychologist Leslie Roos said it’s too early to know the impact mask-wearing has on communication. What is known, Roos said, is times of uncertainty can spark emotions of fear, anxiety, and general apprehension, which can encourage people to withdraw.

Maintaining social connection, be it over the phone or online or from six-feet apart, is key for mental health during the pandemic — as is engaging in artistic activities “where we feel lost in the moment,” said Roos, an investigator at the Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba.

At Maples Collegiate, Abramson settled on “care” as the theme for her Grade 12 class this fall. The theme has been weaved throughout all her assignments, including the panels, performance art pieces, and the Love Grows initiative.

Under the Love Grows banner, students across the city have created works of art and written postcards that are being gifted to seniors. Abramson has collected more than 1,000 postcards in the Seven Oaks School Division, alone.

“Art is so important right now,” she said, “because it’s such an easy space to communicate.”

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @macintoshmaggie