Art… and Soul… and Social Distancing… and Advice on How to Cope from Valley Artist Valerie Fulford

Art… and Soul… and Social Distancing… and Advice on How to Cope from Valley Artist Valerie Fulford - theHumm April 2020

By Sally Hansen

Over twenty years ago theHumm appeared on the scene to promote the arts in the Ottawa Valley. April 2020 is our first non-appearance on your newsstands and at your local businesses and libraries since then. We, like the artists and arts-related businesses and events we publicize, are struggling to survive in the short term and to figure out how to revive and thrive in the future.

These are extremely challenging times. Humans dislike uncertainty and right now there are more than 7.7 billion people facing it. Around the world politicians and populations and the press and pundits are careening from denial to paralyzing fear to unwarranted optimism, all accompanied by wildly variable predictions based on very little data. We are fortunate indeed to be Canadian!

From an economic perspective, artists and arts-related businesses are particularly vulnerable because we are classified as non-essential. Humans can survive on bread (potatoes are better) and water for a long time if we can protect ourselves from the elements and predators. However, archeologists and historians have proven over and over that we and our hominoid ancestors crave art; it is essential. So, we artists (visual, musical, theatrical, literary…) will prevail and re-emerge as COVID-19 is subdued.

In the meantime, and it is a mean time, your Intrepid Arts Reporter, with over 240 artist interviews as her credentials, is reaching out to a few of the artists who have graced our covers and our pages. We want to share how they are coping instead of moping, and hoping they will share their creative approaches to dealing with the fear and stress of uncertainty.

Fortuitously something in my subconscious led me to choose Valerie Fulford as my first virtual artist interviewee. Imagine my delight when I discovered how she had answered my obligatory question as to WHY? she creates art. On the back of her Artist Trading Card in our December 2018, issue, her response states: “My art is how I cope with life — how I navigate my emotional landscape.” Val is brimming over with ideas about how one can cope and hope and not mope, and she is a poster child for her advice.

Here’s a limk to the article to refresh your memory: thehumm.com/online/article.cfm?articleid=2242

Facing pandemic pandemonium today, she readily acknowledges that she is in an incredibly fortunate position economically. Her financial situation is secure enough that she does not have to worry about rent or buying food or not being able to pay for things she needs. Hopefully the new Canadian Wage Subsidy program just announced will ease concerns for many; earning a living as an artist or a gallery owner or entertainer or writer is a real challenge in the best of times.

Fulford thinks that artists, “of all the people in the world,” are best positioned to deal with forced social distancing for at least two reasons. First, many work in isolation most of the time, and have long ago learned to follow and trust their own muse. And equally important, “we have the ability to create!” So her first piece of advice is to do just that. Even if you don’t feel like working on the art you were preparing for a show that is now on indefinite hold, make something. As she puts it, “I can worry and I can knit at the same time, so I’m knitting up a storm.” Soon her new bed coverlet will be big enough to fold double.

Second, “learn something new.” Val’s new tongue (pronounced tong) drum is on order, and she can’t wait to teach herself how to play it, with the help of extensive online resources. I checked, and you don’t play it with your tongue. Learning something new takes concentration; when you concentrate on “x” you can’t worry about “y,” or COVID-19.

When I interviewed her fifteen months ago, Val had begun experimenting with a completely new body of work. For the first time in a long and very successful career she was painting abstracts. Since then she has travelled extensively with her partner, Dennis Paul, and her faithful dog Betty, fortunately returning to their home in the Lanark Highlands just as travel restrictions were being implemented. She is using her sequestered time to pull out each of her experimental canvasses to reconsider and contemplate the next direction that her very personal and private muse suggests.

Fulford is also waiting to hear how COVID-19 will affect her next scheduled artistic adventure. If all goes extremely well for the world, she is hoping to be in Poland in early 2021, working on a new animated film by the same company that scored its record-breaking success with “Loving Vincent.” We all wish her well in being able to realize that ambition.

On an unusual personal note, if you have enjoyed theHumm during our twenty years of promoting and supporting the arts and entertainment in the Valley, and you would like to help us survive to thrive again in the future, please let your friends and social contacts know about our online presence.

And please stay tuned. As an older person, in my next posting I will share some of my favourite methods of coping instead of moping. Right now, I highly recommend an enjoyable stroll through Fulford’s online gallery at valfulford.com .

Re-purposing Your Gifts: from Costume Designer to Mask Maker - theHumm April 2020

By Kris Riendeau

In an article entitled “Covid-19 Cannot Harm Your Gifts!”, Bruce Anderson of the Core Gift Institute coregift.org writes: “…what is undeniable is that you have come into this world with gifts, and you will leave this world with those gifts, having given them along the way. Gifts form an essential part of our passion and purpose, and give us a lifetime of opportunity for finding our true identify and offering who we are to the world.“But, in times o......

Art… and Soul… and Social Distancing… and Advice on How to Cope from Valley Artist Valerie Fulford - theHumm April 2020