Title
En Route, 2020
Description
Mixed Media Collage and Acrylic
32 x 48 inches
Woven together from letters sent by my friends whom I met in Rome, this project is a
culmination of communication during a global pandemic. Painted over the weaving is a depiction
of an arch we would all pass under on our way to classes. A faint city map connects these
fragments of ephemeral memory together. Resembling a postcard, this piece has imagery on one
side and messaging on the other that includes the mailed items I received. The final image was
transformed into mailable post cards that I sent out to all I met abroad.
Biography
Emma Stoolmaker is in her third year at Michigan State University studying Art Education with
a minor in Art History and Visual Culture. She is currently an intern at the Eli and Edythe Broad
Art Museum within their department of education. Additionally, she has been involved with the
Kresge Art Center’s Saturday Morning Art Program (SMART) for the past two years where she
assists lead instructors in teaching students grades K-12 new art techniques and concepts. Emma
had the opportunity to study abroad at John Cabot University in Rome, Italy for the spring
semester of 2020s.
Reflection
While artmaking is intrinsic to my way of thinking, communicating, and processing, it was the
last thing I felt inclined to do when pandemic was first setting in. I was on my way home from a
place I felt I truly belonged. It was as if all of my newfound independence and vigor were
replaced with an empty sense of blocked opportunity and guarded living. Deciding to apply for
this grant was a personal commitment to reclaim my art to my current situation. Rather than
creating to escape and temporarily liberate me from isolation and lost experience, it was time to
sit in my current situation and unpack what I had truly lost as a result of the extenuating
circumstances. Not only was my project beneficial for my own processing of emotion and
hardship, but also to those who participated in sending me media to include in the final piece.
For my friends and I, this was a more formalized way to say goodbye to a place we were just
starting to get to know.
What gave the biggest support was the notion that this project was centered in process, not
progress. Rather than fixating on a final product or a due date, I had time to articulate my
concept, remotely collaborate with my friends in new ways, and synthesize material in a way that
was meaningful to me. Its intention was to share my experience, not to be spectacle to the input
of others. This was truly freeing – my abstracted response became far more important than the
physical manifestation of the piece. Aside from covering the costs of the project itself, including
shipment costs, materials, and labor, this grant has aided in me moving from my family home to
an independent living situation, one that allows me to continue learn and create in a new
environment with people from which I have been distanced.
Providing funding such as this promotes the idea that creators are valued. Recognizing the
triumphs and tribulations surrounding our current positionalities in a pandemic validates our
responses and gives room for us to experience rather than simply surviving. I wish that creatives
are supported in ways such as this in the future to encourage physical responses to unprecedented
lived experiences.