The things that kept me alive
One of Chris Wilson’s more personal pieces in the exhibition is The things that kept me alive. In 2020 Wilson caught COVID-19 and became quite sick. He was not sure if he was going to survive the fight with the deadly virus. Wilson ultimately overcame the virus, and created a painting consisting of mixed media along with a paintbrush, fabric, oil, and acrylic on canvas to reflect on that moment in his life. The painting represents the things that he thought about while being sick. Mainly, the things that defined and enriched his life and allowed him to persevere through the worst moments of his fight with the virus.
The painting features a large self portrait of Wilson in the middle of the canvas. Around him, are objects, words, and symbols that represent the things of central importance in his life, the things that pulled him through his fight and into the recovery process. One of the main items that sticks out is a paintbrush. This reinforces how important art is to Wilson and his life. The thought of being able to work on art again helped him to overcome his sickness. Another thing that sticks out is a mask at the bottom of the canvas. We have all become so accustomed to wearing a mask that we don’t really think much about it. However, they are much more important than many of us realize. The final thing that sticks out in this piece is the Spanish sentence at the top of the canvas which reads, “Dios, no estoy listo.” This sentence translates to, “God, I’m not ready” in English. Wilson was sick and did not know what the virus could have done to him. He wanted to get back to his life, to the things the meant the world to him. He knew he was not done. Praying seems to have played a large part in Wilson’s recovery.
Although this piece is tailored to Wilson’s life, we can all relate to what it is saying. We all have things that we love and value in life and keep us going throughout the day. A lot of these things we most likely take for granted. We often only realize that we take these things for granted when unexpected challenges occur, and nothing seems to be going right. Falling back on the things and people that we love brings us back to who we are and pushes us through the hard times. Wilson was able to overcome the virus by thinking about all the things in his life that made him the person he is today. There is one main word on the piece that keeps all of us centered in our lives and gets us through the hard times, and that is “love.”
