We love to travel.
Basement Isolation Art Gallery
Molly has been all over Europe and the US, and when we first heard of COVID-19, Molly and I were in Philadelphia visiting Teddy and his girlfriend Kaitlyn for a birthday ski trip for Molly’s 12th birthday in January 2020. When Molly and I landed at MSP on our flight back from Philly we were near the International arrivals and I told her we should move outside to wait for our ride. She asked why, and I explained COVID-19 to her. At that time, it appeared to be only in China but I was being cautious because we had some international travel coming up. That week in school when Molly’s teacher asked if anyone knew about COVID-19, she was the only student who knew about it and where it originated.
We had no idea how serious the COVID-19 situation would become.
The first trip I had planned was to Germany to visit Sam on March 17, 2020. As our trip approached, Paul decided to come with us in case we were isolated or quarantined at either end of the trip. We were glued to the news as the pandemic unfolded. Two weeks prior to our trip, Teddy and Kaitlyn went to Germany and got engaged. They were fortunate that their trip was not cancelled and they made it home without incident even though they were there when the WHO upgraded COVID to a pandemic. Our trip was cancelled on March 13, 2020, and we settled in to sheltering at home thinking it would last a few weeks. The second trip I had planned to Germany and Italy was cancelled on October 1, 2020, and our plans to go to Iceland in August 2020 never got off the ground.
For the first time in Molly’s life, we had no plans to go anywhere.
She adjusted well right away, and we were both on extended spring breaks as our schools were busy planning on how to return to studies remotely. Molly taught me how to paint on canvases with acrylic paints. Molly and I painted many masterpieces that were inspired by our trips to art galleries and museums. Molly also taught me how to make this iMovie and we documented the grand opening of our gallery on Facebook.
As our painting collection grew, we came up with a plan to display our paintings in what was to become our basement isolation museum.
As the months passed, we painted new paintings to add to our museum. In the summer and at Christmastime we encouraged the rest of our family to join us and add masterpieces to our gallery.
Through art and creativity, Molly made the world a little more beautiful one masterpiece at a time. We talked about the galleries we visited throughout the years and our favorite pieces. Molly spent hours pouring through art books and Pinterest for inspiration and ideas and to learn about techniques. Molly plans to study art restoration in college, and I think she has a good foundational start in this important work. Recently Molly told me that she misses visiting art museums, that she thought she took the opportunities for granted, and that she rushed through the galleries not spending the time she should have taking in each piece. I told her in the future we will go back and spend as much time as she needs to see each painting. Painting is one of Molly’s many talents, and in future posts I will share more of those talents.
Basement Art Gallery