While others sat marooned at home under COVID-19 stay-at-home orders, Connor Cremo let his artistic muse go for a stroll.
The Beacon College senior showed off one of his most recent works in April during the City of Mount Dora (Florida)’s Virtual Art Show.
Hosted by The City of Mount Dora Recreation Department, the digital display featured his drawing, “Arrangement of Things.”
Looking to snap folks out of the COVID-19 stay-at-home doldrums, the Mount Dora Recreation Department drafted local artists to help “spread beauty and positivity,” said Megan Mathews, youth and family supervisor with the city of Mount Dora.
That begat the City of Mount Dora Virtual Art Show.
The exhibition didn’t rival the Foire internationale d’art contemporain or The European Fine Art Fair. Nor was that the point.
Nor was it a competitive process. Open to all ages and skill levels, the city accepted most works if the artist signed a waiver.
And the prize?
According to the poster announcement, the “winner gets the immense pleasure of sweet bragging rights!”
Yet and still, more than 80 artists participated. More than 200 pieces were submitted, said Mathews, who developed the concept and managed the show. It debuted April 10.
The Rincon, Ga. senior described his piece as “an assortment of different things put together with some consistencies between them. It’s made up of multiple smaller parts that can be arranged in whatever way. It can mean a few things.”
That fits in with Connor’s creative juices, said Kimberly Watters-Sasser, an assistant professor of art at Beacon College, the nation’s first accredited baccalaureate school dedicated to educating neurodiverse students.
“Connor enjoys many creative processes but has chosen to concentrate on drawing,” she said. “Connor’s approach to drawing over the past two years has evolved from a reactive approach that utilized only materials found around the classroom, to conceptual thoughts that are planned and executed with use of traditional (pen and pencil) as well as exploratory drawing (photo transfers onto glass) methods.”
For Cremo, a studio arts major, showing off his work to the world “was nice.”