Keep Trucking
Anxiety.
Many deal with it,
many have no idea how to calm it,
many know the triggers.
It has become a part of me,
but it will not be a definition.
I do know how to calm it,
and the triggers,
traveling,
social media,
people.
Family and friends are an anecdote.
Art is medicine.
Domestic "chores" help heal.
Pop culture calms.
Everything has merged into, "Keep Trucking".
My friends and family have become part of the art by posting on social media, and me bringing the images into the art universe. These people inspire me to heal, create, make for myself, and keep trucking through this anxiety. Their lives combined with my own creates the series. The viewer has become part of the work. I am no longer alone in either endeavor, anxiety or art.
J. Kerr Marrakech (Pink Lady); acrylic on canvas, 11x14", 2020
Detail of J. Kerr Marrakech (Pink Lady)
J. Rae Mason Mountain (I Love Gold); acrylic on paper, 11x17", 2020
Detail of J. Rae Mason Mountain (I Love Gold)
C. Stout Mountains; colored pencil and charcoal on paper, 6x6", 2021
J. Rae Mason Mountain; pastel, colored pencil, and graphite on paper, 11x15", 2019
Breakdown
This series first began in 2019 when Jan became inspired by her family’s immense traveling. She realized then how much traveling triggered her anxiety but loved to see all the social media posts of places people ventured. She could not go, but the people around her could. So, Jan decided to turn the photos into art (with permission). The posts became art instead of a small square picture on a phone. Her friends and family did the work and Jan created from their point of view.
The photo credit is in the artwork title along with Jan’s personal pop culture reference title in parentheses.