coronavirus

COVID-19 Anosmia Frustration

in

Anosmia happens to be a relatively common symptom of COVID-19, so more people are talking about it of late. I was born with anosmia, which is the term for no sense of smell. (I mostly get by just fine in the world, and in fact I appear to have better color vision as a result, and perhaps my super-powered high-pitch hearing abilities are also related. I do have more exposure risk to toxic fumes, gas leaks, fires, and such, and spoiled food can also be more difficult to discern. My long-term memory is also negatively impacted. So it’s not something I necessarily recommend, but anosmia is and always has been a part of my life.)

One of the more frustrating things about not being able to smell, though, is that people who can smell conflate smell with taste ALL THE TIME. They are not the same sense. Words have meaning. For example, many “flavored” items in the market are in fact scented, which is very frustrating if you don’t in fact experience both because you waste time and money on discovering this inaccurate marketing language. Jolly Rancher candies, Starbursts, Skittles - their various colors and types (strawberry, cherry, orange, lemon, grape, etc.) all taste pretty much the same, and any differences in taste are typically not identifiable as actual fruit differences but rather slight differences in citric acid to sugar ratios. Meanwhile, I can absolutely differentiate a real strawberry from a cherry by taste, and so on. All those “flavored” sparkling waters on the market like La Croix Mango vs. Coconut are all merely scented waters. They are indistinguishable to me. The only truly flavored sparkling waters I’ve found so far are from Spindrift, and they also are 10-15 calories apiece because they do actually incorporate a touch of juice.

This recent op-ed in The New York Times is therefore infuriating. Krista Diamond did not lose her sense of taste. She lost her sense of smell. Ageusia is its own disorder. Words have meaning. WORDS HAVE MEANING.

Specialization and Societies

in

When I was a kid, I really liked reading survival fiction. Hatchet, Robinson Crusoe, Swiss Family Robinson, My Side of the Mountain… I was down to be a self-sufficient machine. Nowadays, if you are interested, there are people surviving (or as some like to put it, “sur-thriving”) in the wild for weeks to months with very few supplies on various television survival shows like Alone and Naked & Afraid and YouTube channels dedicated to living a fully self-sufficient lifestyle.

As an adult, I have to share that I really like living in a specialized society. (Also, as a vegetarian for ethical reasons, I dislike the emphasis on killing animals that seems to invariably accompany these solo survival experiences.) I grow a lot of plants, but currently am only growing one food-producing plant (my tomato plant), and that was a gift from a neighbor. I know a lot about art, plants, animals, and ecology, and a fair amount about a range of other topics. Nevertheless, I rely on other people for a lot! I buy most of my food from a supermarket, and am fortunate enough to be gifted pretty much else in my diet (aside from my homegrown tomatoes, though I was gifted the plant itself) from gardening friends. My job - college department chair and professor - exists as a product of living in a society. I rent my house, and pay for water, electricity, and trash/recycling removal services. I make use of modern medicine, and have interests and hobbies that depend upon the participation of others for maximum enjoyment. This very blog is a product of the internet, a social network.

We’re living through a pandemic that wouldn’t be a problem if we were all self-sufficient machines that could permanently isolate (as well as one that wouldn’t be a problem if we were all vegetarian…). It sucks. We should do our best to stop COVID-19 spread through wearing masks, pausing on travel and large gatherings, and in general following recommendations from scientific and medical professionals because having a social conscience is important when living with others. But I love the life that I have - which has not only benefited greatly from but is founded on being a specialized member of a society - and while I understand that there are certain negatives that come along with living this way, I nevertheless embrace it as my desired lifestyle. Viva society.

Eating an Ethical Diet

in ,

I’ve been a vegetarian for ethical reasons for over twenty years, and my artwork and writings about my pieces address issues including animal rights, ethics, conservation, and ecological balance. The COVID-19 pandemic is a direct result of our generally poor relationship with meat consumption, including that of endangered wildlife. Now due to meatpacking plants, the city that I live in has topped a variety of coronavirus tracking charts in terms of spread, density, and duration. Iowa is mass torturing and slaughtering pigs as a result of the pandemic’s disruption of the processing and supply chain. Eating meat increases global warming, obesity rates, and an acceptance of cruelty and superiority that can’t help but seep into other parts of our lives.

Here’s a great Op-Ed in the New York Times that goes into more detail on all of my above points. I support eating an ethical diet and believe we need real reform in this arena as well.

Approaching the End of the Semester

in ,

Well, finals begin at the end of next week for Spring 2020 here at Morningside College! It’s been a lot of work converting in-person classes to online - I spent several hours finding public domain imagery of skeletons and nude models for my figure drawing class, as just one example - but we’re making it through!

Here’s our first fully virtual senior show of the season, courtesy of our skilled student Riley Custer:

And here are some more photos from my walks around Sioux City over the past couple weeks, including a surprising and somewhat misguided street donut offering:

Pandemic Productivity

in

Well, the world’s been upended. As a professor, this is the first time I’ve attempted to teach online coursework, and obviously the circumstances - these courses were not designed with online in mind, ISP overloads are causing even my own mid-tier home internet to no longer be able to stream high-quality video between the hours of 7am-2am, students have other demands on their time like familial support and sharing devices and spaces - are sub-optimal for sure. The courses I’ve been teaching this semester include Figure Drawing (no live model anymore and no ability to give rapid critiques on what is the hardest technical subject matter, but at least they can do self-portraits and use public domain imagery), Painting I (honestly, not so bad especially since we had a little over eight weeks in person to lay the groundwork), and Senior Art Seminar (I am mourning the loss of accessible senior thesis shows and receptions but am intrigued about how a virtual exhibition could be executed), as well as overseeing internships. We’re all just trying to cope as best we can with these new circumstances, but from the conversations I’ve been having with students I think we’re all chomping at the bit to be able to return once it’s safe to do so. When that will be, though, is still the big unknown.

I know that I am very lucky in that overall I still have my job and am not currently in financial crisis like millions of others due to this pandemic. The quarantining has nevertheless overhauled my personal life, too, beyond the obvious lack of professional and social gatherings. I really enjoy exercising, but more than that, I also need it - when I’m too sedentary, my back weakens to the point that it then goes out. What seems to work best for back maintenance is regular, long, and fairly high-intensity cardio. However, my knees are not able to cope with high-impact exercise. This means that ellipticals are my favorite workout, followed by swimming and riding stationary bikes. (I’m a gym devotee not only due to the access to low-impact forms of exercise but because I really appreciate climate control when I’m exercising - I sweat a lot even in air conditioned spaces. I also like the ability to watch cable television on their machines since I don’t have cable at home!). Because I can’t do any of my gym workouts, I have been alternating long walks around the neighborhood and riding my bicycle in laps around a nearby elementary school parking lot.

I try to stay out for at least 30 minutes each time, but especially on the walks I aim for an hour since I’m not getting high-intensity exercise from them. I haven’t ridden a real bike (as opposed to a stationary bike) in such a long time that I’m basically relearning how to do so and am not great at controlling it yet, but I’m already improving a little! The neighborhood walks have been both interesting and a bit scary - I was attacked by a loose and very territorially aggressive dog a couple days ago but luckily I wasn’t bitten. I have discovered that Sioux City is not the most walkable place due to a lack of sidewalks and crosswalks on some major streets (Gordon Drive, I’m looking at you). A lot of people also block their driveway sidewalks with vehicles. Furthermore, the weather has not been particularly conducive to outdoor exercise. We had a blizzard that knocked the power out for several hours a week ago, and today I was awoken by the sound of hail and whistling wind. It’s also been quite rainy, which is fairly normal for March but does put a damper (see what I did there?) on being outdoors. But needs must! Here are a few coronavirus door signs I documented on my neighborhood walks.

Since I’m still working (and doing so in a different way that was unplanned-for), I have less free time than one might anticipate. Between work, needing to exercise more frequently since the intensity is lowered, and cooking all of my meals, I’m staying fairly busy. I also have a list of chores I’ve been slowly tackling (filing my taxes are next on the list). But everyone needs some form of fun, and I’ve been feeling just a little too stressed to want to begin a new professional piece - though I hope to begin that soon! So instead, I’ve been making a few ceramics. For professional development, I was sitting in on a section of Ceramics I this semester because it was the one discipline I knew barely anything about, and that seemed like a deficit that especially since I also serve as Art Department Head I wanted to address. I learned some about wheel-throwing (there’s much more there than I’ve mastered as of now, but maybe some day!), and a little about glazing. About six or seven weeks in, I gathered that you can add chunks of rust (aka iron oxide) into the clay and they will add value and texture. What values and textures are TBD each time, though, based on firing and other variables - the iron oxide will likely melt in high-fire temperatures and that can cause cavities and vertical runs! That really captivated me - I think because A) I love color, B) I love nature-based chaos as a compositional wild card, and C) I love the conceptual power of rust. It also opened up the world of additives in general, and I decided to attempt experimenting with adding mica pieces, dried clay bits, and potentially other media like vermiculite too.

Obviously the pandemic has disrupted my ceramics progress, but it hasn’t halted it. I’ve been slowly but steadily making pinch pots at home as a low-pressure creative outlet and form of fun. Here are a few images of some of my current experiments. I won’t see how any of these pieces actually turn out until they’ve been through bisque-firing and then glazing, so probably at this point we’re looking at the fall, but it’s something nice to work on nevertheless!