https://thelmaarts.org/#calendar-8c1927b0-5ce6-4566-b152-68d1cf6a2f53
Good Air: The Pandemic Paintings introduces a curated selection of Dan Fleming’s artwork chosen from over 100 paintings and drawings created during the COVID-19 Pandemic. It is Fleming’s artistic fight or flight response to the unknowable and indecipherable possibilities between March 2020 and March 2022.
Just a few months after ringing in the 2020s, inklings of a coming threat began to spread across the airwaves and internet. People were getting sick on the other side of the world; rumors were spreading quickly. The nightly news was already tabulating daily death counts. The term lockdown had entered the social lexicon. This wasn’t the latest blockbuster zombie movie but a very real threat spreading across the globe.
As workers packed up their belongings on a relatively normal Friday evening in early March, nothing could have prepared them for what was coming that weekend and the next two years. What started as “two weeks to stop the spread” quickly changed to full lockdown, closures, and, at the very least, social distancing “for the foreseeable future”. Plans were canceled, businesses shuttered, and everyone retreated into their own private spaces, communicating via Zoom and text. Those lucky enough were able to work from home but many faced unemployment, layoffs, or the prospect of facing the invisible threat.
The studio has always been a refuge for Fleming, but now he was stuck there. While many artists reported a time of stalled inspiration or blocked creativity, Fleming was energized. He immediately ordered a few hundred dollars’ worth of supplies and began painting.
Two years later, the end of the Pandemic was on the horizon and so was the end his series. Fleming had brought to life over 100 large-scale paintings and countless drawings over the previous 24 months, most unseen except for digital images, all unshown except for a few to friends and family.
As he looked over this huge body of work that he had created, Fleming realized that this was not a collection of images inspired by events witnessed or specific actions experienced, but was more his subconscious, organic, and extremely personal reaction to the constant flow of virtual communication juxtaposed with a lack of literal connection to the world around him.
As time offered him perspective, Fleming sees that the paintings that make up Good Air are not necessarily declarations of a belief or specific stance on a subject matter, but rather, are like diary entries, a recorded stream-of-consciousness, reflecting an ever-evolving litany of thoughts, concerns, and experiences throughout an ever-evolving situation.
