Under COVID-19 'stay-at-home' orders, art students recreate the world they see through their windows

Her students began the semester in an on-campus art studio--but the last few months were spent online from their homes.

She began to wonder how each of her students was experiencing this historic pandemic.

"I was just sitting in my studio and I was contemplating how the students were doing and wondered what they were seeing out their windows," she said.

Hooks asked the students to spend the week simply observing the world outside of their windows, outside of their homes. After meditating on what they saw through their windows, they were to pick one scene and recreate it in any medium be it pencil, paint or a stylus on a computer tablet.

She aimed for this final assignment to include meditation, combined with a simple creative exercise that would help them nurture their individuality as artists--as well as their connections with each other and with the world.

Knowing that the impact that COVID-19 had on their lives, Hooks hoped her challenge might help them and those who view their work to find peace and clarity.

Junior fine arts major Malana Bryant picked the biggest window in her home. "(It's) the one that gave me the best view of the outside and to me, nature has always brought a positive feeling," said Bryant.

Outside senior fine arts major Cindy Rhodes' window, she found a happy scene. "It was a child who was jumping on his trampoline. It was just there and it was beautiful," said Rhodes.

Hooks and her students miss their face-to-face, on-campus interactions. As they approached their projects, they thought about how new social distancing precautions, masks and short tempers troubled them.

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As their window projects were completed, their images provided a more hopeful view of what may be soon-to-come. Bryant listed her own wishes, "Getting school back up, and that everybody seems safe and well. Nobody getting sick anymore."

Professor Hooks says added benefit of the the assignment is to help her students accept who they are as artists and to treat other people and other points of view with respect.