Are you ever at loss wondering to what to do with your lockdown time? Well when Greenpoint resident Amanda Geller was laid off from her job as the wine steward (or “sommelier”) in a Manhattan restaurant, she quickly realised it was an ideal opportunity to spend more time with her lifelong passion - painting.
But not just still life in and around the home. No, Amanda, whose most recent art course was figure drawing, asked her friends to send her naked pictures of themselves which she then committed to canvas. The local community website found out and she agreed to an interview. She told Greenpointers.com:
“It started out as a joke when I asked my friends in a group chat if they wanted to ‘send me their nudes’ for me to paint, now, after five days ,I have had around 30 people send their pictures — some that I don’t even know.”
But many of her subjects were fellow hospitality workers who were also sitting round twiddling their thumbs due to the New York lock down.
“After the quarantine is over I plan to launch an online gallery showing and donate a portion of the proceeds to women in hospitality who have lost work due to the shutdown. Mostly the project is something fun during these crazy times that celebrates women and all types of beauty. A woman takes a nude when she is feeling sexy and awesome and I love capturing that in a piece of art that they can show off and feel good about themselves.”