Link 1: Nature fighting to survive is more palatable than hatred or war, submitted by Yael Halpern

Link 2: Reclaiming, ink, watercolor, and graphite on paper submitted by Kat Horion

​Artist Reflection: This quote made me think how important change is, however in our case constant change really took over, and created something toxic: pollution, cultural dissonance and a world that often moves too fast. It feels to me that in this case the change that needs to come next is actually a change in our thinking on change. This change maybe isn’t going to be about progress, maybe this change is a about a return to something that really came before, something that allows for Nature to win the fight (as described above) and thrive.

Link 3: Dinner at the Community Gardens, photograph submitted by Leann Shamash

​Artist Reflection: This photograph, taken at the community gardens in Newton, is my response to "Reclaiming." The community garden is a place to reclaim nature, peace, quiet and tranquility even when the gardens are resting under the snow.

Link 4: Winter Dinner, poem submitted by Kasha Martin

Artist Reflection: Although the focal point of the photograph was the dinner table and chair set at the edge of the community garden, my attention was drawn to the soft spot of earth amid the snow. As a gardener myself, thawing ground always evokes hope and excitement. Especially in this year of Covid, the hopefulness for the bounty that both Earth and earth will inevitably bear helped inform my writing.

Link 5: Still Life 1: Lemon and Peony, food assemblage submitted by Sara Gardner

Artist Reflection: Reading "Winter Dinner" immediately started me on the path of thinking about pantry items. When I think about winter, I also think about the seeming scarcity of the fresh food that we see in other seasons. But cooking in the winter isn't merely limited by the relative lack of fresh produce; actually, I think cooking in the winter requires much more skill and nuance as we look to other sources of food: our pantries, our reserved food stores. The season and its orientation towards what has already been dried, canned, or jarred (sometimes frozen) is a necessary time of culinary reflection. In this time of COVID, when those who have the privilege to do so have stocked their pantries, cooking reverts to something very similar to what I see as winter cooking in its reliance on the pantry in the weeks between grocery trips.  Contemplating still lives, particularly old Dutch portraits from the 16th century, where painters would display their skill by painting items from their larders and the occasional fresh ingredient (especially citrus fruit); I felt inspired to evoke something similar with the ingredients I've been using a lot in quarantine to create an image from food that felt relevant to my day to day experience.

Link 6: DeMouse, watercolor and graphite on paper submitted by Anyah Lee Suderman

​Artist Reflection: I enjoyed working from a reference but being imaginative and playful at the same time. All I could think of was - what a mess! And I gave the mice little weapons for tails because it is always quite a battle to deter those things.

Link 7: Unexpected helpers, greatly welcomed, submitted by Ashley Buckholtz

​Artist Reflection: When I saw the artwork, all that I could think about was the mice helping make breakfast for the artist. Finding unexpected helpers during this time has been a highlight and such a sweet positive light for me personally. I'd been thinking about just the two words: Unexpected helpers; but then as I sat down to write it out, I unintentionally added “greatly welcomed." Whether it’s the text from a friend you haven’t heard from in years checking in, or the neighbor offering to pick up groceries, we are all helping each other, even in the smallest ways, anyway we can.

Note: The artists did NOT see the reflections written by the previous artist, only the image of the work and the title. The reflections were revealed only when the chain was complete.

Feeling inspired? Create your own artistic response to this chain and share on instagram #translations2020.