Stella Dubin ’21’s newest oil painting portrays herself cutting a lock of hair.
Artwork by Stella Dubin
If many of us feel that the coronavirus has only brought pessimism and despair to our lives, Stella Dubin ’21 has come to see that social distancing can inspire art. A member of the Visual Arts Concentration program, Dubin has already made an oil painting in her time away from campus.
Interested in a phenomenon that has been gaining popularity as people’s desperation for entertainment grows, Dubin painted a self-portrait, depicting her cutting her own hair in her bedroom. Dubin cited as her inspiration her discontent after being separated from her friends and social activities, as well as the ways other people have so far coped with social isolation.
“A common thing that I have found really interesting for a while now is how so many people, when they are bored out of their minds, cut their hair,” Dubin said. Though life in isolated quarantine may seem dreary and monotonous, Dubin’s painting portrays the excitement of giving herself an impromptu haircut. The portrait shows Dubin determinedly taking scissors to a lock of hair. With an abundance of bright, saturated hues, the background is highlighted with strokes of red, blue, and yellow. Dubin utilized larger, wilder brush strokes than she typically does in her work. “I was trying to show the messiness and the frantic energy that comes with being your own barber,” she said.
She’s realized that altering one’s hairstyles can be a profound experience. “I’ve definitely had my fair share of drastic hair changes,” she said. “ I like that changing your hair can be a reasonably healthy coping mechanism for boredom.”
Dubin says that the mental and emotional exhaustion of living through a crisis like the current coronavirus outbreak has hampered her ability to create art. Although she has more free time than she would have in a regular academic term on campus, Dubin has felt a lack of investment in new ideas and artwork. “It feels like this time should be encouraging so much creativity, but honestly, art feels so pointless right now. When I sit down to do things I usually feel so fulfilled by, I just feel like there’s no reason to create,” Dubin said.
Additionally, students have limited ways to showcase the art that they create at home. While Dubin acknowledged that the purpose of creating art is not necessarily to entertain or receive feedback from an audience, she said that “it is so surreal to try to spend time doing something that is so superficial for nothing.”
Dubin’s newfound sentiments of superficiality towards art stems from her sense of aimlessness. “I feel like if I were to make art right now, it would have to be about what we are all experiencing. But I just don’t know what I could say that would add to that conversation,” she said.
For Dubin, the challenges of making art and feelings of fear, sadness, and devastation are commingled with creative inspiration, hope, and optimism, as shown with the frenzied brushstrokes of her oil painting and her wariness towards creating art.
“This quarantine feels permanent. Feeling stuck in your situation is awful,” said Dubin. “Cutting or dying your hair reminds you that you can always get out of where you’re stuck. We will get through this, and our hair will grow back.”
