Why Is There More Art During Quarantine?

Image by Free Photos from Pixabay

One of the interesting byproducts of our COVID quarantine has been the amount of art that’s been created during this lockdown. And by art, I don’t just mean painting or music, what we consider to be art in the strict sense (although I do include both of those forms in my definition). 

Rather, I’m referring to all forms of expression, any act of creativity, including the culinary arts. This is especially evident if you spend time on social media. More people are painting, drawing, cooking, learning an instrument, making masks (and other things) - generally, making. 

Part of this, of course, is the fact that many people have more time on their hands. If they’re working, they’re doing so from home, which means no commute or back-to-back meetings. Of course, there are (far too) many who don’t have work to go to at all, especially those in directly consumer-facing industries.  

So, faced with more time on their hands, it’s natural that they would seek to get busy using this extra time on their hands. To spend their time doing things that they’ve had as hobbies for years, as a way to while away the day.

But I wonder if there isn’t something more to it. After all, some of these folks are doing things they haven’t done in years, perhaps decades. Others are trying their hand at something entirely new. Why is that? I mean, why not just watch more TV, or read a book?

I don’t think it’s simply a way to pass the time. I think there’s something deeper at work. 

For many, it’s a mental diversion. An opportunity to take their minds off of this virus and all that it has done and cost us. A chance to divert our thinking away from the media overload.

For others, it’s something a bit more pointed - it’s an act of focus. An opportunity to point our mental faculties in a specific direction, to a specific end. And to thereby achieve a specific, defined result.

Of course, a core aspect for many is that this gives them an opportunity to connect with themselves - or perhaps, within themselves. It’s a chance to reach deep down and get a better sense of who we are and what we’re about, at a very core, very fundamental, abstract and emotional level.

And, as such, it becomes an outlet, an expression of emotion. A way to convert what they’re feeling into a practical reality, a physical (perhaps edible) manifestation of their feelings.

In all of the above, though, it’s an act of defiance. Whether we expressly think so or not. It’s a decisive stance against what the virus represents, and what it’s trying to do to us. It’s about giving the disease the proverbial middle finger by immersing ourselves in something we own and control, whether anyone else sees it, values it or not.