I am originally Swedish but have lived in various other countries and continents since childhood and finally settled in Portugal where I am now painting and farming.
My main challenge was to carve out some time alone to work, and the result was that many works from this time included the family in some form.
Clara Maciulis
Some weeks before the lockdown, we had purchased an old house in the countryside that we had planned to renovate slowly while still living in Lisbon. When news about he lockdown came, we moved here rather chaotically over night, all family, including my daughter and granddaughter. We immediately launched into building gardens and producing food and renovating. I had an enormous surge of creativity, looking for expression of the rollercoaster of emotions we were going through in paintings and video works.
There was a lot of joy and simplicity in our new situation, and also much tension with suddenly being four adults and a baby constantly together with little escape from each other.
My main challenge was to carve out some time alone to work, and the result was that many works from this time included the family in some form. I created many works directly relating to the lockdown , the longings and personal stories from this time, the uncertainity of what was unfolding, the above three are an example. More paintings and videos on Instagram @nowclara
This painting shows my mother during the first lockdown in 2020.I wanted to express her loneliness for weeks on end during this period, the frailty and uncertainty that felt almost crippling, and the disconnect from any contact. All these feelings flow into her body language ,into the frailty of her almost nude body, and her gaze away from us. She is still turned towards the light though, hoping.
#365daysafter art project