Grace Coyle ’22 was taking Painting II last March when the world first locked down due to the coronavirus pandemic. 

So much uncertainty left her feeling unmotivated, and she said her work started to reflect that. 

Then, she began to use painting-and the extra time she had-to find her way out of that darkness.

“I personally started to lean into it more,” Coyle said. “There was a time in which painting became going through the motions. I got into it again because I had the time to do so, and I was just looking for a creative outlet.”

The art department had the summer to prepare for the school year, and for the challenge of hosting studio art classes amid COVID-19 restrictions regarding space and social distancing.  

This semester, St. Joe’s is offering 40 studio art classes, including painting, photography, ceramics and graphic design. Some of the classes are virtual, with students producing all of their art at home. Others are hybrid, with the class split into two with some students in the studio and others at home. 

Mary Henderson, adjunct professor of art, is teaching all of her Painting I classes virtually this semester. She relied on the department to ship supplies to her students.

“The materials part has been pretty seamless because the department has handled it really well,” Henderson said. “They have done a really good job about getting stuff shipped out to students who needed it.”

Henderson also has had to rely on technology to review her students’ completed work. Students submit photographs to her of their paintings.

“It’s so impressive,” Henderson said. “People square off the image in the frame. I’m able to get a pretty good idea of what I’m looking at.”

All in all, Henderson said the experience has been a positive one, thanks to her students.

“It’s been surprisingly not a disaster,” Henderson said. “A lot of credit goes to my students for making it not a disaster. They’ve really risen to the occasion.” 

Jill Allen, visiting assistant professor of art, is currently teaching Ceramics I, Ceramics II and Mosaic I courses in person. Over the summer, Allen taught a fully virtual ceramics class. Being back in the studio for ceramics classes is ideal, Allen said, though she still had to make adjustments.

“This year we did not use the pottery wheels,” Allen said. “It’s such a time-intensive but also material-intensive process that we decided to eliminate the pottery wheels as a tool. We’ve been teaching pottery by hand, building pottery forms using things like slab building or coil building techniques.”

Madison Pristera ’22 is currently enrolled in Drawing I, which takes place in Boland Hall. In compliance with COVID-19 guidelines, all easels are six feet apart and split between two floors. There is also no sharing of materials.

“The only thing that we share is the pencil sharpener,” Pristera said. “Everything else is given to us-erasers, pencils, charcoal and chalk. We do have rulers that [our instructor] gets out, and we wipe them down. I have one at home with me now and it has to be wiped down before I give it back.”

Allen said a lot of extra cleaning protocols are in place for ceramics classes as well.

“We have communal bleach buckets for anything that might be communal like a sponge,” Allen said. “It’s dropped into that bleach bucket and cleaned that way and then goes back into rotation after being sanitized.”

Henderson said when she looks back at the work students have produced during the pandemic, she is moved by the beauty of the work and by the students’ resilience. 

“I know that is a credit to them and their willingness to really work hard and rise to the occasion under difficult circumstances,” Henderson said.