AUSTIN (KXAN) — Every day, Jet Baker prepares his canvas and paintbrushes, sets up his computer and gets to work on a new painting while his friends from around the world watch.
At the end of each day, he hangs up his creation on the wall. The next day, he starts again with a blank canvas.
Just as everyone has seen their lives change in some way during the coronavirus pandemic, this is Baker’s new normal.
For the last month, the actor and painter from Austin has been painting a new coronavirus-related picture every day. For most of those days, he has been livestreaming while he paints, either on Facebook or YouTube, at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.
“On the first day of my quarantine I thought, OK, this is time to paint,” Baker told KXAN. “So I painted the Earth as a coronavirus.”
Baker is now on day 32 – and says he won’t stop until the Stay at Home order is finally over.
“It’s my time to escape every day just a little bit, even if it’s a difficult painting,” he said.
There is a huge variety in Baker’s paintings, but they are all bound together by the coronavirus pandemic. Among his creations are a boarded up Sixth Street, a girl having a drive-by birthday party and a mom letting her kids apply her make-up.
Baker said that some of his paintings were inspired by the news – one even depicts Austin’s Mayor Adler updating the public – while others are inspired by people and their stories during the quarantine period.
On Wednesday, he was painting the newly iconic image of thousands of cars lining up for food in San Antonio.
“Life has changed for everyone. For me, I escape into my paintings for two to four hours a day and on the day I painted the lab workers, I started livestreaming,” he said.
“Some friends had been chatting to me and that’s more fun. I was going to paint anyway.”
His daily streams have even helped him connect with friends in other countries who have been tuning in. Baker hopes it’s therapeutic for them, and a small return to normalcy during a difficult time.
“Have you ever watched paint dry? Tune in,” Baker joked.
Previously, Baker founded the non-profit Share Art Heal which provides art supplies to people, with the aim of helping them heal through art.
Share Art Heal partners with various local organizations including Dell Children’s Medical Center, but with their summer plans now canceled, Baker has found himself flush with supplies.
As the pandemic and its consequences roll on, he is encouraging people to record their experiences in similarly creative ways – whether it’s painting, writing, drawing or anything else.
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