ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — A photo posted on Facebook during January’s “Snowmaggedon” had a particular meaning for local artist Rodney Mercer.
Posted by the Registered Nurses’ Union of Newfoundland and Labrador, the snap was of a group of nurses and nurse practitioners at St. Clare’s hospital in St. John’s — smiling but weary staff from Wing 6 East, to be specific, who had just finished a 36-hour shift during the city’s state of emergency. It was especially poignant for Mercer, since he was well aware of those nurses’ dedication, having had surgery and two lengthy admissions on that very ward last year.
Mercer had been considering the best way to express his gratitude to the nurses and staff when fellow local artist Rebecca Cohoe approached him with an idea.
Cohoe had been inspired by #PortraitsForNHSHeroes, an initiative in the U.K. by artist Tom Croft, which paired visual artists with workers for the National Health Service.
“He had initially offered to do a portrait of the first NHS worker who reached out to him,” Cohoe explains. “He had so many people reaching out that he realized he needed to extend it, so he called another artist to join in. That was in April, and since then there have been hundreds of portraits done through that initiative. I saw it and thought it was really cool and thought it was the type of thing that people in this province would be really interested in.”
Cohoe contacted Croft to ask permission to use his idea here and he agreed, saying it was being done in six other countries as well.
Cohoe had another inspiration: she, too, had spent a fair amount of time in the hospital in 2019, having been on bed rest prior to the birth of her son, Ray, who came prematurely and spent three months in the neonatal intensive care unit. Like Mercer, she wanted to say thank you to those involved in her family’s care.
Starting today on Instagram, Cohoe and Mercer are launching their #FrontlineFacesNL project, hoping to pair workers interested in having their portrait created with artists who will do them.
When they say “frontline workers,” they don’t just mean those in health care, but all essential workers.
“Health-care workers are a big deal, we know what they are doing every day,” Cohoe says. “We also want to make sure that grocery store workers, delivery people, bus drivers and all those other people who are out there and whose lives are being affected and who are at a greater state of risk than the rest of us who are in our homes will all be able to take part.”
When they mention “artists,” Cohoe and Mercer don’t only mean those who are professional. Anyone who is able to create a visual portrait is welcome to participate, and there are no guidelines for media used. Painting, sketching, textiles, photography, cartoons, sculpture, digital art — everything is welcome, almost.
“Pretty much anything where you can maintain social distancing. Tattoos might be out, but that’s probably it,” Cohoe explains with a laugh.
#FrontlineFacesNL launches tomorrow! Inspired by @tomcroftartist ‘s project in the UK, artists and creators...
Posted by Rodney Mercer on Wednesday, May 20, 2020
Here’s how #FrontlineFacesNL will work: creators wanting to participate are asked to post a message on Instagram using a green background (to make it more recognizable in a search), saying, “I’m offering a free portrait to the first N.L. essential worker who contacts me. #frontlinefacesNL.” Essential workers can search Instagram for #frontlinefacesNL, locate a post with that message, and connect with the person who wrote it. The hope is that they will work together to create something the worker will appreciate as a meaningful portrait of themselves and a way to document their work during the COVID-19 pandemic for years to come.
“What more compelling story from this time than the actual face of someone who is in there, doing things and making things happen?” asks Cohoe.
Mercer — whose portrait work has included an image of comedian Ellen DeGeneres in sealskin as a comment on what many believe was misinformation she had been spreading about the seal hunt — hopes the project will foster a sense of connection to the people in the province working on the frontlines during the public-health crisis.
He has contacted some professional artists from across the province to participate, stressing a desire to have creators from all areas of Newfoundland and Labrador taking part, and he and Cohoe hope to organize a showing of the portraits sometime in the future, when it’s safe to do so. In the meantime, they will be viewable on Instagram.
The worker will get to keep the piece of art once it’s completed.
“These portraits are a thank you to the many people who have put themselves and their families at risk so that other people’s lives would be less impacted by the pandemic,” Mercer says. “Often it is the privileged who have their portraits painted. In this instance, the privilege lays with the artist as we thank many heroes.”
More details about #FrontlineFacesNL can be found on the Instagram pages of Mercer (@rodneymercer) and Cohoe (@rubeekoho).
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