Photography. 2020
I'm in a tiny mountain town that mainly has shows and opportunities to meet buyers and to do event shoots (pet portraits) during tourist season. COVID hit just before the season so there were no formal receptions and very limited traffic at my local galleries, and the events where I would do pet portraits and in-person sales were cancelled.
On the creation end, it slowed me down at first. I was scrambling to figure out how to safely get supplies for all aspects of survival, and very busy with our tiny, all-volunteer community radio station. The good side is that it caused me to reevaluate and eliminate the things from my life that aren't meaningful, and that means creating far more, more consistently, and with more depth. It also sparked a new determination to get my work out there, to put more than I ever have into reaching people beyond my local area. With the changes it created in how the world does almost everything, having to do most things remotely like I‘ve been doing for decades, it opened up opportunities to find the venues that are right for my art, participate in events I could never attend in person, and reach a much broader audience.