It's not surprising to me that so many of us carry scars from the long Covid lockdowns. Mine, as I suppose is true of most, relate to loneliness and isolation. Thankfully, I was in a group of writers which had been communicating by weekly Zoom calls for a year or so. During the lockdown, those calls were the highlight of my week, and I know it was very special to the other participants as well.
Even in those times, doing art provided welcome doses of joy and happiness. For some reason, it brings out the happy, calm, peaceful side of me, especially when I interject some humor.
In this piece, which I did back in 2020, I imagined the solace Zoom calls brought to a small group of crocodilians scattered across the world. You'll notice some text in this journal spread, and I've included it for you below. Enjoy!
"All through the past year, as the whole world hunkered in lockdown, their weekly Zoom calls had been a blessing. The group had formed a deep bond, sharing, and, depending on the fortunes of the past week, cycling through optimism, depression, hope, and despair, yet invariably coming out of each call better than they had gone into it. Today’s call had been magically restorative. But it was now time for the call to end.
"Croc, languishing on the lonely shore of Elephantine, a small island in the Nile lately devoid of visitors, quipped “See ya later, Alligator!”
"And Gator, sulking in his burrow at the edge of the Everglades, barred from his usual satisfying strolls through the nearby suburb, answered as was customary. “After while. Crocodile!”
"Then it was Gharial’s turn, secluded in an undisclosed location deep in the wilderness of the headwaters of the Indus river. He, as one of the few remaining individuals of his kind, had to be specially careful and was, therefore, specially lonely. 'Wait! Wait! Don’t go! Can’t we stay a little longer?'"
By the way, this spread is a good example of how I often find visual art and words so intertwined...