We invited the UConn ECE community to respond to Living & Learning in 2020 which resulted in some impressive student artwork submissions. Most of a spring semester, a summer, and the majority of a fall semester were like no other for students across the United States. The pieces selected for the Winter 2021 cover of the UConn ECE Magazine provide insight to how UConn ECE Students interpret living and learning during this time and in many ways depicts what many of us have been feeling: isolation, growth, and social injustice.
COVER: On the Inside Looking Out
This is an 18” by 24” acrylic painting that I created at the beginning of the pandemic for my studio art class. Essentially, it’s about seeing one’s friends or family being together and feeling the fear of missing out. We are just spectators, watching other people live their lives while we try to maintain our health. I’m trying to convey the hopelessness of seeing loved ones together and knowing that you could just go out and be with them, but being unable to. It’s just out of reach and it’s the dilemma that we all face at this time. Thus, this raises the question: how can one balance their social needs with their health? – Kara Rondinelli
RUNNER UP: Light in Darkness
My understanding of Living and Learning in 2020 is the concept of growth. As individuals, this time in our lives has asked us to expand and all for copious amounts of personal growth which has evidently changed and matured our communities as a whole. It is clear that though the future is cloudy, as the mirror in this piece represents, we will continue to grow, change, and learn from each other. This time will be forever captured in history. – Rosemarie LaChance
RUNNER UP: As the Sun Rises
This painting depicts the situation of Korean comfort women, which has been a politically divisive topic as well as a source of modern animosity between Japan and Korea for many years… In this painting, a lone comfort woman sits in the corner of the room while the parted curtains allow the sun though. I made the sun the Japanese imperial flag, the rising sun, to show that although the women are “free” from enslavement, Imperial Japan still dictates their legacy and future. The girl sits beside five empty beds, all of which have the traditional Korean dress, hanbok, folded at the edge. – Madison Lee