Stories from the Quarantine: Katrina Alexy
Join us as we share stories of the various ways that members of the local arts community are making connections, bringing joy, and expressing themselves creatively.
To start, we would like to build on a short story that the EastsiderLA ran recently about arts educator, artist, activist and former EVAC board member, Katrina Alexy. To connect with quarantined students from the Pilgrim School (where Alexy is currently employed as Arts Advocate), she has initiated a project that students can do safely from their homes, but that will be celebrated later as a community when they are all back in school.
"I know they miss their teachers and friends so I thought this could be a fun way to create something together, yet still be safe in our homes."
In Alexy’s own words: “The idea of making mail art has been around a long time and I thought our students would love getting a little art package in the mail when they are all stuck at home. I know I am really enjoying receiving their art in the mail every day!"
"The directions are to create a piece of nature related art on the blank postcard I sent the students and to send it back. Once I get all the postcards back late in April, I will start to assemble a tree of life wall sculpture with all their postcards incorporated. Trees of life are universally found in all cultures representing new life and growth, but I will be basing our tree of life on the traditional Mexican folk sculptures that are full or color."
"I know they miss their teachers and friends so I thought this could be a fun way to create something together, yet still be safe in our homes. My background is community art projects that involve folks from the community so I figured a tree of life sculpture using all the various postcards from our school community would be a good community building experience. Of course, we won’t all see and be with the tree for quite some time, but it’ll happen."
So far, Alexy has received about 50 postcards from the elementary students, and she has just sent 100 postcards to the middle school students.
We’ll be sure to post updates on the project and on the resulting Tree of Life sculpture. To see the original article on the EastsiderLA click here.
About the Author
Michelene Cherie is a Production Manager and Content Curator for The Elysian Valley Arts Collective. She works with non-profits, animal advocacy organizations and owns a boutique marketing and event company - Cherie Creative Company. In her free time, Michelene volunteers for several cat rescues in Los Angeles. More info at: www.cheriecreativecompany.com