A “happy” red heart (it has a face!) reaches to wrap its arms (it has those, too) around you in an animated message encouraging us to “stay strong” and reminding us to keep our distance, protect ourselves and others, disinfect surfaces, and stay inside.
“I have created a short animated video that will create awareness about the COVID-19 pandemic and playfully promote safety and well-being,” says Palm Springs artist Agustin Aguilera, whose work earned a $500 grant to “Keep Art Alive” from the California Desert Arts Council (CDAC). The nonprofit organization is offering relief for working visual and performing artists in the Coachella Valley whose livelihood has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
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 COVID-19 pandemic.
In creating the upbeat 37-second animation, which ends with a hopeful declaration — “We can do this together” — Aguilera says he was “striving to create thoughtful and meaningful content that will inspire love and respect … as well as plantg the seed in the younger audience to begin to create regardless of the medium.”
Aguilera, a recent media arts and animation graduate of The Art Institute of California, works in digital and traditional media.
