MJA

They Don't Need Your Best

2021
Variable size
Oil paint, Tyvek, Tarp, Augmented Reality

“They Don’t Need Your Best” is about the inadvertent distance that grew between my wife and me during quarantine. 

I was able to dodge cabin fever and other lockdown-related challenges due to academic obligations that required me to be on the university campus.  Art school was a lot less fun during COVID but it still provided some sense of relief.  I was still able to do my research and work in the studio. I was still able to talk about art with faculty and colleagues.  I was still able to teach undergraduate courses (even it was via zoom.)

Melanee, on the other hand, had little escape as the world closed and travel restrictions kept her from her family and community. She stayed home and gave her energy to a remote full-time job while also caring for our son Hudson who was born earlier that same year.  Her surroundings didn’t change. There was no time or place for her to recharge as she tried her best to cope with the sleep and energy deprivation that comes with being a new mother.

As the quarantine continued to wear us down, I was able to find slivers of recovery, Melanee was not.  This imbalance of recovery revealed holes in our relationship, holes that were there all along.