Patrick Foster
Patrick Foster, an Albany artist, has worked to raise money through his art to help with the battle against COVID-19, which informed his art after he contracted the virus. Click on "read more" below right to learn about Patrick.
My name is Patrick Foster. I am a painter based in Albany, Ga. I have lived in Albany for most of my 49 years. I work full-time and paint as much as I can on my downtime. Most of my time is divided between painting and working on my website, Facebook page, and Instagram page.
I am lucky enough to have a retail job that allowed me to work through the quarantine. However, working closely with a few hundred people every day pretty much guaranteed I was exposed every day. I eventually developed (luckily mild, non-respiratory) symptoms, and was quarantined for the standard 14 days.
Even before this in mid-March, I had tried to raise money for local charities directly helping with COVID-19, with very limited success. I dropped my prices by 50% on many pieces, and had the buyer donate that amount to charity (or more if they wanted) to get a painting. I kept nothing. But even giving away paintings for charity is hard to do at times.
I have always used painting to deal with everything going on around me, so it was no different with this. This piece (Tag, You’re It) was over halfway complete before I got sick. As I said, with my job it was really just a matter of time, so the thought of it certainty was already there. A photographer friend, Jen Maloney, started a series of quarantine shots and did some of me about five or six days after I started feeling better (from outside the window and with a mask).
We all do what we can to feel normal, but it’s still like being in limbo.
I am lucky enough to have a retail job that allowed me to work through the quarantine. However, working closely with a few hundred people every day pretty much guaranteed I was exposed every day. I eventually developed (luckily mild, non-respiratory) symptoms, and was quarantined for the standard 14 days.
Even before this in mid-March, I had tried to raise money for local charities directly helping with COVID-19, with very limited success. I dropped my prices by 50% on many pieces, and had the buyer donate that amount to charity (or more if they wanted) to get a painting. I kept nothing. But even giving away paintings for charity is hard to do at times.
I have always used painting to deal with everything going on around me, so it was no different with this. This piece (Tag, You’re It) was over halfway complete before I got sick. As I said, with my job it was really just a matter of time, so the thought of it certainty was already there. A photographer friend, Jen Maloney, started a series of quarantine shots and did some of me about five or six days after I started feeling better (from outside the window and with a mask).
We all do what we can to feel normal, but it’s still like being in limbo.
 Photos by Jen Maloney |  |
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