by Nikki Devereux | 11.17.20
I’m currently working on a new piece about exploration, something I miss about the pre-COVID era. I know we’ll get back to a place where we can begin to travel again, but in the meantime I’ll just dream about it and live it through my art. Full disclosure, this isn’t the first piece with this theme. Several of my pieces in the last few months have revealed this yearning with a wanderlust motif that only grows the longer I go without exploration and travel!
The photos show some elements that I’ve begun to piece together. There is an animal theme materializing here, I think because lately I’ve been really thinking about how animals just go about their days as if nothing is happening. The birds continue to sing and the rabbits chew their grass while we are in the midst of a global pandemic. Life just goes on. It’s actually soothing to observe animals right now for this reason. It makes me feel more grounded.
When I take our six month old baby, Mila, on long walks in parks around St. Petersburg, both of us quietly enjoy the sunshine, breeze, and animal friends. Sometimes we sit under a tree and just observe. In some parks people feed the animals so occasionally we end up surrounded by birds and squirrels. I try to channel my inner Snow White and stay calm, but when the birds with really long beaks are a foot away from my baby I get a little protective! In the end they part ways since we usually have nothing to eat, but Mila loves it when they get close. She gets very still and quiet, and stares at them intently, taking it all in. In this way she is much like me, observing, watching, memorizing the world in a sort of daydream.
