As I write this, it is the Third Thursday of March 2020. On third Thursday of every month, hundreds of visitors converge in the core of the Downtown Arts District for the 3rd Thursday Gallery Hop. They come to celebrate art and partake in an evening of sights, sounds, food, shopping, and cosmopolitan fun.
Downtown Orlando is very quiet today. I walked around Lake Eola with Pam Schwartz and there were a few others walking around the lake, soaking in the sun. I got nervous about my 6 foot distance every time a runner jogged by. The March Third Thursday event has been canceled due to the Covid-19 Pandemic. Florida has passed 400 cases of the virus and 9 have died, to date (3/19/2020). The national Guard is setting up Covid-19 testing facilities outside the Orange County Convention Center. 57 tests have been administered in Orange County. So, we have no idea how many people have the virus in Orange County above and beyond those 57 tests. Again, South Korea has been administering 10,000 tests a day to find and isolate patients to keep the virus from spreading. Here the virus is spreading unchecked.
The June 2019 event was the 2nd annual “Alive” Art Exhibit, which highlighted the creativity of 49 artists honoring PULSE tragedy by creating art inspired by the feelings of healing, faith, and hope. Art making has the ability to move people along their journey of grief and loss into a more balanced place of healing and hope. In the face of tragedy, the creative process can help re-calibrate a mourner’s life. It was a special evening of art, live music, an interactive installation, art print sales and raffles.
I sketched this wall which an artist was using to create a large piece of art. She used pieced of black tape to create the large sweeping strokes that made it seem like large splashes of pain had been thrown at the wall and allowed to drip down to the floor where a puddle had collected.