“Watching the paint dry” is literally the mantra of these seemingly endless hours, especially for an artist's practice as exhibitions are put on hellacious hiatus. For our (currently) ongoing series "Art in Uncertain Times," painter and illustrator Marco Wagner describes a typical day.
There are priorities,as the German artist acknowledges, "I don't work much on art projects at the moment, as my time is mostly needed by the family. My girls are at home, and we try to share the studio for art, digital homework, etc. In addition to that, we have a guest child here too, as my wife is a nurse and her colleague doesn't have any care for her daughter while working. My studio is part of our family house, so, at the moment, I am sharing this space with my two kids and the small guest, whose parents can’t take care, as they go to work and the schools are closed.
"As you know, we live quite rural so it´s easy to avoid contact with other people. Actually, I am used to the loneliness, but for balance, I need to see my friends on weekends and go to the city. That´s not possible now and I miss it hard. On the other side, like I said, there’s more action and life inside the house.In the mornings, they have my space for their online homework while I go for a walk with Kathe or make some first things in the garden (spring is coming, hurray!), and in the afternoons I get my studio back.
"At the moment all exhibitions are canceled or postponed, and commissions are down too, so I have time to do many things I have wanted to do or have put off for a long time, like the big painting that I started last year or an old text that I wanted to illustrate for a possible children's book. Just trying to make the best of it and hope we can get back to normal, soon!"
Text compiled by Sasha Bogojev
