The Stay at Home Order Starts at Midnight
BY FEATURED ARTIST: ESTHER PEARL WATSON
Esther Pearl Watson, The Stay at Home Order Starts at Midnight, acrylic on panel, 8 x 10 inches, 2020. Photo credit: Jeff McLane.
THE STAY AT HOME ORDER
STARTS AT MIDNIGHT
ESTHER PEARL WATSON / APRIL 2021 / ISSUE 7
In March 2020, I began creating a series of daily paintings to capture what I was seeing as I drove to my studio during the pandemic. (This series became “Safer at Home: Pandemic Paintings,” shown at Vielmetter, Los Angeles, CA). This particular painting shows how muddled I felt during the early days. What was heading our way? We had no idea how to protect our families. Looking back, it is easy to see some of our early rushes to the store to stock up on toilet paper or disinfectant wipes were desperate acts of an anxious society.
Music to accompany
Esther Pearl Watson was born in 1973 and grew up in the DFW area with a father who was obsessed with the idea that he could build a working flying saucer and sell it to NASA or Ross Perot. She has always been a journal keeper and most of her paintings come from her past experiences or her present day experiences. Her family moved often, since her father’s hobby of building huge flying saucers out of scrap metal and car engines didn’t always sit well with the neighbors. Esther’s pieces are often overtly narrative, clear but mysterious scenes of houses or figures ornamented with snippets of prose telling just enough to get the viewer’s own imagination engaged, wanting to know more. Some are about family, some about places, all have a rich interior life. Her works without words are just as suggestive of story, also exerting a deep emotional pull. Esther has an MFA from CalArts. She lives and works in LA, where she teaches at Art Center College of Design.