Art has always been a way for us to express ourselves. One of its less discussed uses is its ability to act as a shield for the creator, building up a visual protectant layer that helps the artist and its viewers feel safe, and seen. Our concept of protection has transformed drastically since March of 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic trespassed upon our routines and required us to all reconsider how much energy we put into protecting ourselves – both before and during the era of COVID. 

As the pandemic shut down many small businesses, federally enforced capacity guidelines emptied out boutiques and cafes. Small business owners boarded up their spaces and went home, staring out at a future that held no sign of return or reopening. I remember those first couple weeks, going on walks with my family and feeling disheartened by plywood storefront after plywood storefront, until one day, my neighborhood walk surprised me.

Throughout Seattle, and in fact in every pandemic-stricken city, artists stuck at home discovered new and easily accessible canvases in these storefronts. Phoenix-like, these artists’ murals sprung to life out of the abandoned storefronts, some toting inspirational quotes encouraging us all to remain safe and hopeful, some portraying whimsical scenes straight out of a storybook. I remember driving through downtown Seattle’s Pioneer Square early on in quarantine, and each building flaunted several beautiful pieces that, even in brief passing, stuck with me as symbols of hope in the first American city struck by COVID-19. In the context of their creation, each one of these works of art is representative not just of beauty arising from pain, but also of the shelter and safety we have all been striving for throughout the past year. Each time I had the pleasure of coming across one of these murals, I would think about how beyond its sturdy structure was a delicate window, and beyond that, an artifact of what life once was before the pandemic, and what it one day could return to. These murals stand guard of these relics, reminding me of how we often think of our own fashion choices as a layer of armor that both preserves and highlights our personalities and passions.

Photo by Jasmyne Keimig

One mural that stood out the most to me from my many walks throughout the past year featured a quote from Rainer Maria Rilke: “Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror”. These poignant words come from a poem of Rilke’s titled “Go to the Limits of Your Longing”, and the line that follows what’s featured in the mural is: “Just keep going. No feeling is final”. Anne Siems, the Seattle artist behind this piece, has depicted a young woman with fiery red hair, looking out at the sidewalk passerby discerningly, yet also with pride. If the chaotic ups and downs of the pandemic have shown us, as artists and humans, anything, it is exactly what this mural conveys: no happiness without sadness, and the rainbow after the rain. And until we can revel in the calm after the storm, this pandemic – and these murals – will be here to give visual and literal sanctuary to all of us seeking it.