Portrait Projects
Between June 2021 and June 2022, while the world was still reeling from the Pandemic that engulfed us all, my husband and I traveled the Great American Loop in our small motorboat. This 6000 mile journey travels along the rivers, canals, lakes and intracoastal waterways of the eastern United States. Along the way I met many people whose lives were linked to the water and I was curious how they fared during the COVID lockdowns. I asked them: “what did you learn about yourself during the Pandemic?”
L, Pirates Cove marina, AL
So my last year consisted of a lot of re-building physically. We restored a house, we restored this property, the marina, after Hurricane Sally and all the employees got together and we all did it and so during the COVID shutdown, we were doing a big remodeling project and then when that was all over we were doing this after Sally. So I did a lot of physical labor last year. 2020 was physically hard, not emotionally because we live in a world where, truthfully, COVID did not affect us. We were shut down and all those things too just like the rest of the country, but we live kind of separate life already down here so it just wasn’t that big a deal. So emotionally it was a beautiful year: we were in our own world, we didn’t have a lot of outside people visiting, it was just our own little peaceful paradise. Around here we are a big community, so last year with COVID and then the shut down and then with Sally we all bonded and we all spent a ton of time together. Even when we were socially distanced, we came here and worked. Some families worked up there, some worked down here – so that’s what we did. We are resilient and we’re powerful and strong, physically at least. Emotionally? Whatever---everyone has their own things. Physically we are strong and honestly I loved 2020, really and we had time to focus on what we want to do rather than focus on other people just to make a living.