I’m a fine art painter, working in oil, watercolor, pastel, and pen & ink. For over 20 years, I supported myself with my art only but now I work part time as a PCA caring for seniors with dementia, alzheimer’s, and parkinson’s.

Music. 20 years.

I do mixed media and photography, and have for over twenty years, but only full time since 2013.

Leaded stained glass, since 2003.

I have worked with porcelain for a couple of decades and, with glass, for just slightly less. With porcelain, I both throw on a wheel and hand build. With glass I fuse, slump, and cold work. More recently, I have been working with alcohol-based inks and producing coloring books, which I really enjoy.

Designer and manufacturing of museum quality picture frames and an artist producing paintings, drawings, and etchings since 1959.

Usually, when one job with a client is done, it’s easy to find another family that needs help. There are so many, and not enough PCA’s. That’s another crisis we are facing.

This time, clients want to hire me, but are waiting. They are scared to bring someone new into their home. I’ve been out of work now for over a month, with only one remaining client on Wednesdays. It’s taken all my savings to make it through and now I am out of money.

I’ve been living with a stress knot in my stomach, and have trouble sleeping. I don’t go out, except to work, and I wear a mask and gloves. My brother and his wife brought me groceries. I’m used to being able to take care of myself. Now, I’m unsettled, and unsure.

All of my performance work and much of my teaching work has been cancelled.

I’m agoraphobic, autistic and battle other illnesses that make going out pretty difficult.  I generally have County services that I can fall back on during difficult times. These services would ordinarily provide someone to shop for me, and additional services to check in on me. Those services have been suspended, so I’ve been on my own at a time when I need them the most. This resulted in my going through a month’s supply of Ativan in under one week—just to look for toilet paper.

I live a life of isolation all the time but have found that I rely, more than I realized, on things like coffee shops being open, so that when I feel anxious that I’m the only resident left on Earth, I can sit in a coffee shop and quietly observe people from afar.

I can go weeks without going outside pretty easily, but that’s when I have someone coming to check on me. I also tend to use Facebook as a way to feel less alone but I can’t use it for that purpose right now since all the posts in my newsfeed have gone dark. This level of isolation is beyond my comfort level and puts me into a mental state where, under normal circumstance, I would be hospitalized but right now that’s not an option. I have also had some physical illness recently that required some tests to be performed inpatient and those are also postponed.

While the local government has been doing a pretty good job of things overall, they have not put as much consideration into preparing for contingencies for the homeless and disabled.

Anxious, depressed, and very very concerned. My daughter was in China in December and again in January for work, so when they started talking about coronavirus, I was very, very scared. She also lives in San Francisco and has basically been ‘sheltering in place’ for four weeks already, which was just extended four more weeks—until May.

My personal day-to-day has basically been the same, albeit with more phone conversations and figuring out virtual reality—not something I ever wanted to do. And I have not been able to work since early March. I just can’t find the energy, what with trying to put out the rest of the fires.

Because I am immunocompromised, my life has changed significantly. I have relocated to my childhood home, where my parents still live because this is further north, and in a less densely packed area. My chances of being exposed to the virus seem appreciably less. I am using this extra time to work on mediums that need practice, like drawing and watercolor painting. I have been ordering art supplies online.

I’m confined to my studio in northwestern Wisconsin.

Art Crawl has been a huge part of many artists income. For me, not as much of a source of income as it used to be. It has changed over the years, spread out and become more diluted. I’ve watched it go from being the original concentrated Lowertown thing, where painters like myself could sell quite a bit of work to serious art buyers and collectors, to spread pretty much all over St Paul, with anybody selling anything from art to crafts. So, we have lost a great deal of the focus on fine art and a great deal of traffic to our arts co-op.

The closures of so many art venues have spooked people but many artists have stepped up and are working with others to provide virtual spaces to show work. However, even now SPAC continues to charge artists $120 for membership in order to have work in their “Virtual Gallery”, so it is only a tiny percentage of artists they represent. I hope this can change to be more inclusive and represent the art by those less able to pay.

Art Crawl used to be for all Lowertown artists and, in the co-op, anyone could open their doors to show (even if you were struggling financially that year and couldn’t afford to pay). I miss those days. It was a community that supported all of us. Most years, I’ve been able to afford the fees and extra costs involved in making my home and living space prepared for public traffic.

Now, only those who pay SPAC the registration fee or membership fee can show their work during Art Crawl and, if you didn’t for this crawl, you are told you can’t show your work. It’s a horrible feeling. Most buildings now invite “guest artists” to fill the hallways but the truth is that the percentage of artists living in the co-op that open their doors has dropped off significantly.

For myself, it has become not worth it. Many people that used to come to my studio every year have noticed that my door is closed—for now. I can no longer afford all the costs involved. I hope that changes and I hope that art venues find a way to become more inclusive of all artists, especially the ones that are struggling to survive. I don’t know exactly how, but maybe have a page for artists for free with one pic allowed, and then allow paid members 5 pics or something that works for everyone.

Not very.

The Saint Paul Art Crawl and Art-a-Whirl in Northeast Minneapolis makeup over one-third of my annual art income. Just missing those two events is extremely financially debilitating.

It is important to me as an artist because my sales typically pay my bills for the next month. Not sure what will happen come May or June because it looks like this shelter in place will continue for a few months.

It used to be absolutely imperative but since I have branched out, both with my publicity and my ‘point of sale’ locations, this situation has improved. I rely on gallery sales now, I enter contests for publicity and various show opportunities, and I’ve also started studying ideas for both online exposure and sales.

It affects Master Framers and, even though I’m retired, it affects my livelihood. I was also looking forward to exhibiting some of my new paintings at the Crawl.

No. Almost every venue for artists has been cancelled. The only safe place to show is online.

Every single event/concert/performance/gig I had on the calendar, has been cancelled. Performing very regularly is a large part of my income stream. I also do a yearly teaching residency with a creative arts school which is now cancelled, as schools scramble to offer distance learning to prep for end of year testing.

No, not at all. I own a mobile art gallery and I do outdoor events 2-7 times a week through the warm months. This is the time of year that I have either booked, or are in the process of booking, events from April through October. All events that I booked through June, and some beyond, are cancelled. Other events are not putting out public calls as they usually would have done by now. Two gallery shows that I was scheduled to be in have also cancelled.

So many show organizers are listening to what so many people are saying about not wanting to be quick to go back out into crowds so I’m not sure when they’ll actually start planning large shows again. It kind of feels like it may never happen.

Nope, and if people are thinking this is the only show canceled, they must be living under a rock. Every show across the country has been canceled, and the ones that pushed through and held events in early March regret they did because sales were dismal, attendance sucked, and people got sick.

Definitely not! I am routinely offered teaching positions, arts & craft sales opportunities, and gallery shows, often out of town. Since the world has pretty much closed down these are all lost opportunities. I do try to maintain a positive attitude though and it is my hope, that these opportunities will be scheduled again at a later time.

No, several venues have been affected. One in particular was a one man show of my work at the Danish American Center.

LOL. To me, it should include all artists that live and work in Lowertown but sadly, it will only include the ones that can afford the fees of membership to SPAC. They will only represent artists that pay them. There are about 225 artists and art groups on the virtual online art crawl page. The rest of us, even if we lived in an artists co-op specifically to be able to show at Art Crawl, are on our own. I hope this changes.

I’m relying on online venues that support artists for free, like Facebook, or minimal cost like Etsy or eBay, and on my website. Lowertown First Fridays have graciously hosted a Virtual Gallery that is free to all.

I like that. I could post links to all of my music, which might be heard more than at an actual art crawl.

My work doesn’t typically sell in any way other than in person. Having people seeing my work in my spaces—both my loft and my bus—or in any stores I choose to sell in, that follow my esthetic, is my formula of selling my small items. Most of my large work sells in person in galleries.

People are also opting to not spend money due to the uncertainty of things. It’s feeling a lot like the Financial Crisis of 2007-2008 all over again, in that regard. If they were willing to spend money, then I would not be seeing sales on my backup Etsy shop—which has both small art and vintage items—drop to almost nothing.

I have no idea what this looks like or if it will work but it is better than nothing. Even though there are now hundreds of virtual events—for Pete’s sake, they just made the Grandma’s Marathon a virtual event!—what else is there to do? Besides, people are pretty much stuck inside with Netflix or the Internet for entertainment, so why not give it a shot?

I absolutely love this idea! I’m not sure at this point what it might look like, include, or how it might function but it seems to me at this point that any publicity we could create, and/or sales we could generate, could only serve to benefit our local artists.

While I can appreciate the effort, I don’t think it will be effective.

Artists will always find a way through hard times. They are the seedlings of society, after all, bringing creative thought, action, and solutions to everything they do. Many will lose income and momentum in their careers, but hopefully with a little help from our friends, we will make it.

One of the most beautiful things to show up during these challenging times have been the acts of kindness and the stories and faces of generosity, hope, and encouraging inspiration.

I’m thankful for Governor Walz and his actions on behalf of all of us.

Loss of a lot of income for many.

I can’t speak for everyone else. I’m hoping a lot of other artists have day jobs and, even if it’s in the service industry, I’m glad they will be included now in unemployment. The unfortunate thing is that tipped employees don’t claim all their tips so their taxes are often lower than their actual income. Still, it will hopefully help them to stay afloat. Those who have day jobs will find it easier to weather the storm.

Another thing that would be really helpful is if we could all contact lawmakers and ask them to reinstate the 2009 Making Home Affordable Act, so that places we rent from or homes we may own can see their loans rewritten and, if people can’t pay rent, they won’t have to try to catch up later. It would just put a pause on things, to be restarted later.

I know for me personally, my bus and mobile gallery has a monthly overhead of close to $300 a month, whether it’s making me money or not. Bills are hard to pay with no money and I’ve pretty much resigned myself to having the entire year off with no pay. It’s why I haven’t had much time to come up for air since this all began—I’ve been trying to get my hustle on however I can, which is also currently serving as a distraction. One mental health tool is to use distractions to get by and not pay attention to all the bad. Even this question is bad!

It’s devastating. I think the long term effects will depend upon the overall economic impact. If the emergency stimulus keeps people’s jobs from being permanently terminated, then we have some hope for a fairly quick economic recovery. But if the temp layoffs become permanent, then the imminent recession will be catastrophic for the artists’ community.

Short term, it’s hard, because fees have been paid to shows that are no longer happening, and artists are out that money as well as any money that might have been earned through sales. On the flip side, the shows that had to cancel (because canceling was not a choice) are also struggling, because they have expenses already incurred through planning and coordination and are now also dead in the water in terms of show revenue and donations. Some of these shows have reserves to refund booth fees, some are holding fees for future dates, some are giving partial refunds, and some are operating on such a tight budget that they will be bankrupt if they have to refund fees.

Overall, I think there will be a lot fewer art shows/opportunities in the future, because many of the organizations that sponsor these shows and festivals will be forced out of business.

If the Crawl can make it through this year, then that is actually a good thing for Saint Paul, because the Crawl will become one of a few shows rather than one of many.

Some of us will be severely negatively affected, some not so much.

Some of us will adjust. We will find alternative venues to explore and different ways present our art to the public. We will find different ways to collect payment for it.

And some of us won’t.

About the same as the restaurant and other businesses. A major setback.

Lowertown, as an arts community, has been going through a lot of changes ever since CHS Field moved in, which changed the neighborhood completely, and we are all witnessing gentrification at its peak. Many artists have moved out, and many buildings have moved in, new restaurants, higher priced living spaces, and rent increases. People take a short-cut across our backyard and parking lot to get to the stadium. They take our parking spaces and yell at us if we ask them to move, you get the picture. These are not things you think about until you have to live with them constantly.

Lowertown has changed, and with it, the arts community. I hear about more and more artists leaving the neighborhood all the time. I hope we all find a way to make it. This current crisis only magnifies all of it. Still, I’m hopeful and seeing a lot of beauty and love come forth from unexpected places.

Daily yoga, keep balance.

I’m pretty tired of hearing phrases like “we’re all in this together” because from what I can gather, it seems phrases like that exist only to make able bodied and neurotypical people feel better. We are not all in this together because many of us are viewed as expendable.

As the wealthy have driven from Costco to Costco, buying up all the paper products in sight, homeless people on the streets are locked out of skyways and buildings that they use for safety from the streets. I have spent time being homeless too and not enough thought has been given to that portion of the community.

Word has it that this is “bringing people together” but overall, I’m not seeing it or feeling it. Then, in the most amazingly kind way, when my dog needed emergency surgery recently, people came through for me in a big way. That part was mind numbing and completely unexpected because prior to that, I’d felt like this was a culling of the herd. That if you were not a “Have”, as opposed to a “Have Not”, then good luck surviving, and if you are not able in body or mind, the powers that be simply want you dead. It feels a bit all over the place and this frantic, unpredictable energy is pretty hard to navigate through.

Even though I am involved with the Saint Paul Art Collective and the Saint Paul Art Crawl, my answers are my personal opinions based on my own experiences as an artist.

Not really.

While I usually have something to say about almost everything, no. Just everyone stay safe and healthy. We will survive.