Art, Spirituality, and Gratitude
This was a fun self-portrait during lockdown. My hair was long, and I just wanted to put it in a weird shape. Then I got a day of the dead skull and tried to find the best way to tape it to my forehead. We were all pondering our mortality and that of those we love, and that felt like the best representation. All artwork by Brian Martinez.
By Brian Martinez
Being an only child felt like a superpower during the pandemic. Quarantine made me feel nostalgic towards my childhood summers and winter breaks. My parents were strict, and I spent time off from school stuck in my room figuring out how to solve boredom. In those moments I developed a love for artistic processes, reading, and learning. I remember going through Magic Tree House books and being influenced to write adventure stories. Then in middle school I was introduced to graffiti and that became how I spent my time at home. It was all a matter of figuring out how to spend the time stuck at home, and this pandemic felt exactly like that.
One of the first steps of quarantine for me was building a routine. It became clear that without some sort of structure the foreseeable future was going to be rough. Art was the first thing to find a timeslot, and it got the mornings! Every morning started with Pranayama, then making coffee, and then heading into the studio. The main thing I was working towards was a gallery exhibition. I have set a goal for myself to have a solo-exhibition every year of my twenties, and 2020 proved an interesting problem to solve. Thankfully an opportunity did arise. The gallery space I had worked at for eight years, The Joseph Watson Collection, was going to unfortunately be closing its doors. As a last goodbye we would have a one day pop-up solo exhibition. We took all the possible precautions and made sure visitors did too—thankfully no one contracted COVID. After that I just had fun in the studio and focused my attention towards my last year as a University of Nevada, Las Vegas art student.
This was a painting I finished during quarantine. I started it November 2019 and finished it August 2020. The title was inspired by Autobiography of a Yogi, Cosmic Awareness: The Human Drama.
I started the pandemic as an atheist but ended it as a believer in God, which was one of the most drastic changes in my life. All my life I had rejected religion and God, a product of a strict Catholic upbringing. Mexican parents can be hardcore when it comes to God. The book Autobiography of a Yogi was the reason I began to believe. I forget exactly how the book came into my life, but it was after looking for books on yoga. The book seemed to slowly break down the mental wall I had built towards God. Yogananda’s words seem to hold the ability to do just that. It was very intense to witness that wall being taken down as I continued to read further into the autobiography. I remember a moment in my backyard while flipping to the next page where I asked myself, is this really happening? It made me pick up the practice of Pranayama, which is the fourth step on the eight-step path of yoga. It focuses mainly on breathing exercises. This belief in God also brought with it lots of gratitude towards everything in my life, and kept me calm and collected throughout moments of uncertainty.
Seeing as there would be tons of free time, I knew this would be a great opportunity to fully dive into a subject. The first word that came to my mind was nutrition! The first book I turned to was Deep Nutrition by Cate Shanahan. The book's main point was not to consume bad oils. Things like canola oil, seed oils, or vegetable oils of any kind. I cut out anything that even had those oils in the ingredients list. Then the second point of the book was seeking quality nutrient dense foods. I started buying raw milk and fresh eggs from local farms. It also made grocery shopping fun as I would shop for interesting vegetables and snacks to eat! I started the pandemic at 240 lbs. and ended it at 185 lbs. It was cool to see that what I was learning about was working in real time. My exercise was mainly walking, but occasionally I would throw in kettlebell workouts and bodyweight exercises. Walking was a big part of daily life during the pandemic. I’d walk anytime I could, thankfully there is a park right behind my house. I’d throw on my headphones and listen to audiobooks a lot. One of the audiobooks I started was Boundless by Ben Greenfield. It had cool health hacks and spoke of the benefits of cold showers. I started taking cold showers once a day and would do the occasional cold plunge in a bathtub with ice at 34°. These things were contributing to feeling positive and healthy in my body. I tried to pass on what I had learned to friends and family and tried to keep updated on what health professionals were learning about the virus.
During the pandemic I got to spend many hours with my parents, which I feel really grateful for! My parents have always been a great support - after high school they drilled into my head that I just needed to focus on school and try my best. I want to express that gratitude because in many other Mexican households we are expected to work and find a good-paying job. Mexican parents who support their children getting an education deserve more praise. We got to spend many dinners and meals together, tough conversations about the unknown future, and loving family moments. We stayed as safe as we could during lockdown, but now that life has gone semi-back to normal we have traveled more, mainly to see family in California and Mexico. Everyone shares their quarantine stories, how COVID affected them, and talks about the vaccine. It feels as though life is back to normal, but you can clearly see how much the pandemic has affected the world. Hopefully we as a country can move forward and help pick each other up when needed, at the end of the day we are all just trying our best.
The George Floyd incident was an infuriating and sad moment. It felt necessary to express that through art. It was disheartening to see racial injustice and police brutality present in our society in 2020. You could feel the collective anger of many people in America.
Photograph courtesy of Brian Martinez/Franco Bonilla.
Brian Martinez was initially interested in being an author throughout elementary school and shifted dreams when a friend introduced him to graffiti in middle school. Through graffiti, he built a love for visual art. By the time Brian was in high school, he began experimenting with acrylic paint and getting influences from the contemporary Los Angeles art scene. After high school Brian continued his studies, acquiring an Associates of Fine Art from the College of Southern Nevada, and now a Bachelors of Fine Art from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. During this time, Brian was a gallery intern for eight years at the now-closed Joseph Watson Collection and has had the opportunity to create various murals and exhibitions throughout Las Vegas.
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