Capturing Art in Isolation: The COVID -19 Issue

This special edition of Umbrella Arts Magazine is dedicated to the amazing artists who stepped up to heal us during this unprecedented time in history. Your personal stories are touching, your resilience is inspiring, your passion for the arts makes us all better people -- we thank you!

About the cover: For this issue of Umbrella we invited applicants to submit images that reflected their experience during this time of social distancing and widespread lockdowns. The entry by Larry Tayler (LarryTayler.com) entitled Concrete Head Farley Avenue is on our cover. He writes: “I photographed this sculpture on May 7, 2020, when life was still very isolated in Belleville. The sculpture lives in the front garden of a house on Farley Avenue. Part of my coping strategy during isolation has been to take our Basset Hound, Edna, for long walks in our east end neighbourhood… This photo is richly ambiguous and more than a little creepy. There are no resolved narratives. It raises questions but doesn't answer them, which is why I thought it would make a visually arresting magazine cover.”

In response to publishing the winner of the cover contest, we heard from Jason Rees, owner of the concrete head who writes: “This bust was created by my wife Michele Seraphim Rees when we were in makeup school in Toronto in 2000. We've been lugging this thing around for 20 years, putting it in various gardens we've owned. The weather has aged it nicely [and] we are pleased to see it used like this!”

The “Runners-up” are featured on the facing page. All entries and their artist statements can be found @ quinteartscouncil.org/cover-art-contest