COVID Community Center

3/16/21 Northgate library and community center

After picking up some books at the Northgate branch library and going back to my car, I noticed that the adjacent community center was being used as a COVID testing site. The playground, also part of the complex, was cordoned off, and the entire walkway leading up to the various entrances was ribboned. It was empty the day I was there, but maybe on busy weekends the ribbons are necessary to manage snaking lines of people waiting six feet apart. Nearby, a child jumped around on a bench because he couldn’t use the playground, of course.

I thought sadly about how the community center is normally a fun, welcoming place for classes, meetings and activities. Every Halloween, the center used to sponsor a free pumpkin carving party that was fun to sketch, and I’ve sketched the playground, too.

The bright yellow ribbons and neon orange stanchions had a forboding, unwelcoming presence, like a hazardous construction site. Danger. Caution. Keep Out.

On the bright side, the Greenwood branch used to be the closest library branch offering curbside-pickup service, but recently the much closer Northgate branch opened for curbside, so now I can go there. The service is about as contact-free as any I have used: When I approached the friendly library staff person behind the plexi window, he pushed a tiny plastic basket through the slot at the bottom. I dropped my library card into the basket, he pulled it back to scan the card, and a moment later he returned with the books I’d placed on hold. All library materials are quarantined for 48 hours before being lent to other patrons. The library website lists all the protocols staff members follow to ensure patrons’ safety and their own. It was all very reassuring.

It will probably be a while yet before the library opens again for “normal” use, but until then, I’m grateful that I can continue to borrow books safely.

Holiday Queue

12/7/20 Northgate Post Office

Other than the readerboard at Ace Hardware promoting “Corona Hours” back in March, I haven’t really sketched much that shows what the pandemic looks like – chiefly because I avoid all places and circumstances that might enable me to sketch masked people. I’ve wanted to – partly because I miss sketching people so much, but more because documenting current events is something urban sketching can do well. I won’t risk my own safety, though, for a sketch.

A few days ago when I was dropping off a pre-paid package at the drive-up mail box, I found an opportunity to sketch safely from my car. With two weeks until Christmas, the postal service is overwhelmed more than ever. While long lines at the post office before the holidays are normal, this year they are snaking out the door and around the parking lot so that everyone can stand safely distanced.

This sketch was a huge compositional challenge. As I often am, if I were mainly interested in sketching the gestures of the people in line, I would have drawn them larger, especially to include the important detail of masks. But if I drew the individuals larger, I would have been able to fit only two or three on the page to indicate the appropriate distance between them – another important part of this story. (I’ve seen some sketches of queues or crowds, and the sketchers will note that the people were actually more socially distanced than was being shown in the sketch; they, too, were challenged by this dilemma.) Since my story was about the long line at the P.O., I chose to show more people and make them smaller, but some of the masks got lost.