Finding Solace in Art
All photos and original artwork/Mary Felker.
By Mary Felker
In March, right at the beginning of the pandemic, I had just finished a mural called Dream on Dreamer located in Market in the Alley in downtown Las Vegas. This piece was meant to be a transitional piece to discuss how dreams are meant to just grow bigger and bigger as you work on them. The image contains cactuses, sunshine, rainbows, and a neon sign to integrate local Vegas and desert-inspired imagery into the art. I wanted to portray Vegas imagery ingrained with the idea of dreaming because I felt that Vegas and its beauty were what brought me my dreams of becoming an artist. Then the pandemic happened and I felt like all those dreams that I was talking about were destroyed…
During the shutdown, I went through a serious amount of anxiety and depression as I envisioned my business and all my dreams collapsing. I broke down to colleagues, family, and friends, telling them I wasn’t sure I would make it through with my business. I turned towards the wild and free feelings of watercolor to better understand the flow that I needed to adopt in my art business to survive this hard time.
The blooming cactuses and night skies made me realize that this quarantine life is just a phase. Every part of life has phases, and art is just like that too, as we see each process and phase of what we create, and think about how it relates to life.
And once I realized it was just a phase, I went into creation mode trying to create things that highlighted the things we can do instead of the things we can’t do. I found that I was doing many things I’d never done before for my own self care. There was a huge list of things that I was doing that I always had wanted to spend more time doing, like napping, gardening, yoga, Facetiming my friends and family, painting, baking, hanging out with my dog, writing letters, and reading. I fell into new routines and found a lot of happiness in doing so, and I found new hobbies that kept me grounded.
As I stayed home, I did so because I wanted to respect the safety of our community. “Stay Home for Nevada” was a Nevada community-based piece of art focused on keeping our micro-community of Nevada safe and healthy. I knew that I had to include the parts of Nevada that I love, like the communities of Vegas and Reno, and the fun things like Area 51 and hiking in the Rubies, and adventures through the desert. I wanted to depict a colorful collection of essential workers as not only an appreciation for all they have done during this hard time, but also as a highlight for who we are staying home for. If our essential workers get sick and can’t go to work, how will our community continue as a whole to stay healthy and safe?
I was finally starting to feel like I was back to creating my regular pieces again, when the Black Lives Matter protests started at the end of May, still during the pandemic. I was momentarily thrown for a loop, but I knew that I too needed to be part of the conversation and depict artwork that initially was appealing yet thought-provoking. I talked about Black Lives Matter with my friends and art community, and the importance of creating a federal holiday for Juneteenth. I am planning more art that I will be sharing in the future so that the Black Lives Matter movement stays as a movement and not a moment.
As we phased back into “normal life,” I recognized that life as we know it may never go back to what we were used to anytime soon. Things looked different, but not bad. Instead they looked new and interesting, and that's what I wanted to highlight through this piece. We still can’t have huge events and gatherings in person, and thus concerts, beer festivals, and art events went online and stayed online. We acquired new accessories for our outfits and found the mask that fit our personality and style perfectly. We met our friends outside for safe and socially distant BBQs and beers in beer gardens. We started spending more time outside and went camping in and around our National Parks. I loved that in downtown Vegas, the city shut down streets, donated tents, hired people to sanitize tables, and created more outdoor seating for local businesses. I realized that these new developments weren’t scary and not normal. They were just “New Norms,” developed to protect ourselves and those around us.
I continue to create artwork in support of Black Lives Matter, feminism, and equal rights for all, because I truly think we should continue these conversations every single day. I am excited to share art and imagery that encourages these movements and conversations, and I plan to share them on social media in the coming weeks.
That's my dog Chaco!
Until then I want to bring us back to what started all of it - this beautiful place I live in - Las Vegas, Nevada. Right now, I am working on this mural depicting all the things of Vegas that I love. This mural is located in an office space in Henderson highlighting the outdoors beauty we are surrounded by. At the end of the day, I believe that we need to celebrate that beauty and let it center us. And once we center on the things we love, all those other unknown and uncertain things won’t be so scary anymore.
When Mary Felker was 7 years old, her parents wrote in a family holiday letter that Mary was an artist in the making. Ever since then, Mary has been naturally inclined to create art. She found her artistic voice while teaching art to teenagers and adventuring in the mountains of Las Vegas. Mary is currently working full-time as an artist in Las Vegas and focusing on depicting the beauty of the desert, Vegas, and the greater southwestern region. She sells her art locally at events like First Friday and Market in the Alley and online on her Etsy shop. Felker’s artwork has been featured on the cover of Desert Companion and inside the Las Vegas Weekly. Outside of making art you can attend watercolor workshops with Mary Felker.
Follow Mary Felker’s art and workshops @MaryOnAdventures on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Pinterest.
Thank you for visiting Humanities Heart to Heart, a program of Nevada Humanities. Any views or opinions represented in posts or content on the Humanities Heart to Heart webpage are personal and belong solely to the author or contributor and do not represent those of Nevada Humanities, its staff, or any donor, partner, or affiliated organization, unless explicitly stated. At no time are these posts understood to promote particular political, religious, or ideological points of view; advocate for a particular program or social or political action; or support specific public policies or legislation on behalf of Nevada Humanities, its staff, any donor, partner, or affiliated organization. Omissions, errors, or mistakes are entirely unintentional. Nevada Humanities makes no representations as to the accuracy or completeness of any information on these posts or found by following any link embedded in these posts. Nevada Humanities reserves the right to alter, update, or remove content on the Humanities Heart to Heart webpage at any time.