Kelly Kenoyer
The COVID-19 pandemic is a once-in-a-lifetime historical event and a local photography show at City Hall seeks to document what it was like to live through 2020 for future generations.
The exhibit in the gallery in the City Hall foyer documents life during the pandemic: the empty rows of stores, the tickets to events since cancelled, and the wonderful times we shared with family while waiting for the bad times to end.
Councilor Diane Gerson helped put the display together with the city and SHOCASE, a local group that aims to promote the arts and culture in Sweet Home.
“We purposely didn’t put any titles on it or any names, because we kind of wanted everybody to take from it what they wanted to take from it,” Gerson said. “I’m really kind of excited. It’s very different for us.”
Some of the pictures show projects completed during quarantine: a stack of books the photographer must have read; a new patio and fireplace, an embroidered pillow. Others show scenes from around town: desolate store shelves where toilet paper should be, or Chewy’s Pub closed due to coronavirus.
These small details show that “maybe the little things in life are as important as the bigger things,” Gerson said.
All the photos that were sent in by deadline are on display, Gerson said. Eight participants sent photos in total: Stefani Brown, Sean Morgan, Ryan Cummings, Lea Landrock, Diane Gerson, Deborah Brock, Christi Shepherd, and Chris Chapman.
None of the art has an associated name, title or label, a choice that leaves the viewer contemplating the shared experiences of the past year: what’s familiar and what’s not.
Though the art exhibited in the City Hall gallery prior to the COVID pandemic was all selected by jurors, this was not, Gerson said.
“We didn’t jury it. We thought about it, and then we decided we would just hang it all because it’s what people thought. We’re not going to take away what people thought.”
This art show will be available for several months, Gerson said, and the photos can be viewed during city hall business hours.
A glass case in city hall also displays some carved and painted gourds by Elda Miller. The intricately painted gourds sometimes include additional elements, like sea shells.
Each gourd is meticulously dried and cleaned out before being Miller carves, burns or stipples patterns onto them. Some look nearly like pottery, an organic imitation of elegant vases, while others follow a more natural aesthetic through carved and painted flowers.
Though they don’t have price tags, Gerson said the gourds are likely for sale.
Previous art shows have included paintings and fiber arts like quilts, but for COVID, Gerson hoped for a more accessible art form.
She said the photos show that “we’re all in this together, and we all reacted to it in a lot of different ways.”