Artist finds ways to express himself during COVID-19

by Mitchell Sasser | WeINSPIRE Reporter

HARRISONBURG, Va. - Demarcus McGaughey is one of the billions of people affected by COVID-19. He also happens to be an artist using his time and talent to inspire others. Whether it’s connecting with fellow artists virtually, creating logo designs, motivating people with the #createyourlife hashtag, or working on new paintings, McGaughey is finding ways to help inspire others during the pandemic.

Demarcus with two of his newest pieces.

Photo courtesy of Demarcus McGaughey

McGaughey is currently working on Heart to Heart stories, which is an “artistic expression of vibrant portraiture paintings showcasing people of color and their hearts intended to spark authentic conversations about feelings, experiences, and connectivity.”

 The process is simple. McGaughey finds four models, collaborates with a fashion designer, and asks them a series of questions during the photoshoot. Examples include: tell me about your mother and your father, tell me about your childhood, tell me have you ever been in love, when was the first time you experienced your first heartbreak, what are you feeling today, what are you feeling during this pandemic?

 McGaughey reads back their answers, and tries to capture their expressions during the photoshoot. He then paints portraits of the models, but most importantly, he tries to capture their hearts through their answers, relying on his models to be honest and vulnerable.

 “It’s creating some healing, some love, some forgiveness, it’s pulling on the heartstrings of people and getting them to see humanity,” McGaughey said. “It also shows we are connected from different races, cultures, backgrounds, religions, lifestyles - but we are all human.”

 McGaughey said he has very close friends who are doctors and nurses who are busy navigating local medical response to COVID-19. He has friends who have lost parents, brothers, sisters, husbands, and wives.

 “By the grace of God, everyone in my family is healthy, but my heart still goes out to those I know, and those I don’t even know,” McGaughey said.

 “Still in this, I’ve found a way to thrive, to be safe, and to be healthy and exercise good mental health as well as thrive,” McGaughey said. “I always tell people to create your life, and that’s the hashtag I use all of the time. Even in the midst of this, I had to adapt and shift and transform and create another life – create the life that I’ve always wanted.”

 Impacted by COVID-19, artists like McGaughey are not allowing this to slow them down.  He was able to moderate an Artist Talk with surrealist artist Carlon Thibou after the original in-person exhibition was cancelled.

 “We get to connect virtually,” McGaughey said. “We can see each other face to face, get to hear other people’s ideas and other artists.”

McGaughey said that some artists have been hesitant to embrace social media. He said that the tools have always been present, but now COVID-19 is pushing people to find ways to share their art with others through new mediums. 

 “It still introduces us to the world,” McGaughey said. “We’re not forced to just operate in one specific location, one specific city, neighborhood, state, country. Now we have room to project an exhibit to the world. The highway is wide open and there is no one else on it. It’s just a matter of how fast do you want to go?”

COVID-19 is also changing McGaughey’s attitude toward his own work, allowing him to go deeper within himself to uncover new concepts and ideas. He is currently working on Silky, a portrait of a childhood friend.

Silky is one of McGaughey’s portraits that he is working on during COVID-19

Photo courtesy of Demarcus McGaughey

“You may see brown just from a photograph,” McGaughey said about this new portrait. “But if you look at it in person, you can see brown, you can see tan, you can see chocolate, you can see iridescent metallic gold, and hints of purple.”

Looking through his phone, McGaughey realized that he has so many images on his phone from his life that he has kept to himself. Quarantine has motivated him to start to think of ways to share these experiences with a new audience.   

 “Now, I want to show the beauty of the culture, and the vividness of the colors of the places where I’ve been,” McGaughey said. “So there are people who have never even traveled outside of the country, who don’t have a passport, and I want to paint those experiences and the people that I’ve met in all these different countries. I want to paint their portraits so that it can bring my world together and connect my world with other people that I know.”

 “I think COVID-19 is pulling that out of me, the friends that I know, the stories that they told me,” McGaughey said. “It’s making me want to paint those stories.”

After the studio that McGaughey was keeping all of his art in dissolved because of COVID-19, he had to move all of his work into his apartment in Brooklyn. He realized that it’s the same place that he has been living in for the past 10-11 years with the same amount of square feet as before, but that everyone always thinks they need more space than they already have. 

McGaughey couldn’t help but make that connection from his apartment to his own life. 

 “I had all of the space that I needed – all I had to do was organize,” McGaughey said.

This article is a follow-up on piece Demarcus McGaughey since he is a 2020 WeINSPIRE Ambassador. Check out our previous story Art Mirrors Life: Demarcus McGaughey’s Story here.