THE BALANCE OF FAMILY AND CREATIVITY
As 2020 is coming to an end, we have to admit this has been an unprecedented year for all artists. As 99% of galleries were forced to close right after the Armory Show in NYC in March, we faced many new challenges. How would we display our artwork, connect with our audiences and collectors, and bond with fellow artists? Another challenge was to balance our time, efforts and energy between household chores and creativity. This was a stark reality for Oxana Kovalchuk as the mother of three children.
“Before 2020 and the coronavirus lockdown Fedor (11 y.o.), Sasha (8 y.o.) and Lisa (4 y.o.) spent a lot of time at school and pre-K. However, this year they stayed at home as never before and became my co-creators, participating in my art projects. They often become the characters of my artwork, and would act as models.
I joke that I’ve never been really obsessed with building a family, seeing myself more as an independent person. Ultimately, when I fell in love and formed a family of my own, children became one of my ‘biggest distractors’ yet one of my biggest inspirations, for sure. They demand all of my attention, and it’s hard to make them believe at times that I have to concentrate on my work. My Studio at the Neumann Leathers Factory in Hoboken, NJ is my hide-away, but during the quarantine I had to stay at home. So, the best and only solution was to get Fedor, Sasha and Lisa engaged in my projects. First, I had to explain them what was going on. We studied the nature of the current pandemic, and we read about pandemics from the past. We saw the masks doctors wore during former epidemics which could be seen as very intimidating. They actually believed they could scare the disease away. Some masks had long noses to establish social distancing. One belief from voodoo tradition that I found interesting, is that people wore masks during rituals and they could actually transcend realities because of who they became when they wore the mask.
We studied the nature of the current pandemic, and we read about the pandemics of the past. We saw masks doctors wore during former epidemics, and those looked very intimidating. Doctors actually believed they could scare the disease away. Some masks had long noses in order to establish social distancing. One belief from voodoo tradition that I found interesting is that the mask was considered to be an attribute of transfer from the natural condition
to the trans one. It seemed to me that this idea syncs with the current events happening in the world. Everyone is in the process of significant changes and going through the state of transition.
The research we did together with my children inspired me to further express my emotions (which were especially intense during the quarantine time) in art. I started painting masks from around the globe – not the ones we see people wearing today, but artistic masks. I was deliberately choosing colors and styles that precisely reflected my feelings about the pandemic , the current state of the world and the political climate.
As a family we also launched a project called The Box of Emotions – here we would reflect and recreate various emotions – confusion, fear, love – and place each emotion into each box.
My children always mirror my creative approaches – style, materials, techniques. Beyond this, they are proud of my art projects. For example, my older son Fedor loves telling visitors at the exhibitions about my artwork (VideoLink to IG) and how they were created. He reveals all the secrets of my art.
So, 2020 has been a unique, controversial year but it was also a year to reconsider my values. I rebalanced how I use my time with my family, incorporating them, instead of keeping them separate from my art. I reimagined my life as an artist and a mother of three children, facing everyday challenges, turning negatives into positives – trying to find relevant solutions where-ever I could find them. Eventually I learned that no situation can stop creativity. Inspiration comes from unlikely places – those I would never expect.”
