When COVID-19 began, the digital fabrication spaces and sculpture studio I had inhabited with fellow artists dissolved. Restrictions, job loss, and curfews in Montreal forced us to abandon our spaces and pushed many of us to relocate. I moved to New Brunswick and found myself seeking new methods of artmaking which could be done from home. I began water colouring, starting with contemplations after walks which I took on a daily basis during months of isolation. Over Zoom, friends and I would talk about the pandemic, financial instabilities, environmental anxieties and artistic endeavours. We would create together, and snippets from the day would be painted in short watercolour series that catalogued the times. I also began writing, developing my style and voice and getting works published in local art magazines and with collaborators on projects.   

An awareness of the anthropogenic impact of the pandemic became heightened. Masks, gloves and sanitary wipes were littered everywhere on my walks. Over Zoom with a childhood friend, (environment scientist, Jacqueline Saturno), a mutual environmental anxiety and pandemic waste awareness became an energised exchange. I told her about poetic works and watercolours I had made documenting the waste, and she discussed the research projects she had conducted and published. On walks of her own, she collected data on the types of pandemic waste, primary locations and percentages of each that were observed. I had purchased a used plastic sneeze guard to experiment with after gaining new access to digital fabrication machines this year. I hoped to divert this material from waste and continue my research from before the pandemic, however, I felt the heavily loaded material had some resonance with our talks. We decided to collaborate on the strengths of our respective fields in a project that used these now dejected artefacts from the pandemic.