Mask Gleaners by Donald Patten
Artist’s Statement
Almost overnight, COVID-19 had changed the way people interact with each other, and with our own bodies. We lived our lives in vulnerability during that historically significant time of disaster. The initial phases of the pandemic are behind us, but the virus remains and continues to be dangerous. The societal trauma this pandemic has caused will be remembered and felt by those who have lived through it for the foreseeable future.
In the past, master painters would depict historically significant disasters that happened to them as a way to cope. Artists of the 19th century depicted hardships and trauma in the wake of the Industrial Revolution, which began the formation of our modern world. As an artist learning the techniques of masters, I have the opportunity to create long-lasting visual information that depicts the trauma of this pandemic.
Therefore, I have created a series of drawings that represent my experiences in modern COVID life by drawing inspiration from past masterpieces that depict the embodied experience of trauma. This drawing is inspired by the oil painting Gleaners made by Jean-François Milletin 1857. Gleaners symbolizes the hardship peasants experienced in rural France surviving on gleaned grain after massive industrial farms take the majority of the harvested crops, leaving scraps for the old and poor. During the pandemic disposable face masks were common litter people would throw them away after using them. It was very common to see masks on the ground as trash. My drawing Mask Gleaners emphasizes how ubiquitous face masks were as litter, critiquing how our society disregarded masks as disposable trash, while they provided an important function to help prevent the spread of COVID.
Donald Patten is an artist and cartoonist from Belfast, Maine. He creates oil paintings, illustrations, ceramics and graphic novels. His art has been exhibited in galleries throughout Maine. To view his online portfolio, visit @donald.patten on Instagram.
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