Ryan Campbell’s run as artist-in-residence at Palm Springs Art Museum was abruptly cut short when the institution shuttered until October due to the spread of COVID-19. The tours, talks, and workshops he had planned were canceled, and his other projects and sales were put on hold.
He’s now back in his Cathedral City studio, adding one segment of lines each day to a painting he started March 11, when the early cases of the virus were being reported in the Coachella Valley. “I went to my studio that morning to begin the new painting,” Campbell says. “The first marks made are the red verticals along the top edge. This represents the day the world stopped. Next came the toilet paper craze — the three horizontal white bands. Then, sickness and chaos overtake the center of the canvas, and the black death started to creep in from the edges.”
Campbell’s painting, which has instigated a new series, earned a $500 grant from the California Desert Arts Council (CDAC) to “Keep Art Alive.” CDAC and affiliate La Quinta Arts Foundation established a $50,000 Keep Art Alive fund to award grants to Coachella Valley artists and arts organizations who create thoughtful, inspiring, and relevant works responding to the crisis.
“The marks keep coming,” the artist says. “I’ve never wanted to finish a piece the way I do with this. I hope this will all be over with soon, and the world and its people can begin to heal.”
Campbell recently created a pair of murals in Palm Springs — in “the pit” behind The Rowan hotel and at Desert Regional Medical Center — and exhibited last year’s Joshua Treenial exhibition of site-specific art.
Follow Ryan Campbell on Instagram at @rmc1
