Instant Print of the Week: Feb 2nd, 2022

This Instax Wide Print was captured the day after my birthday in 2020 at the beginning of the pandemic, just before the Covid hit the US en force. Tiffany and I were in the process of selling our Skoolie that we had been traveling in full time. We were staying with family when we finally sold the bus and placed an order for a Ford Transit so we could build it into our next home, but this was December 2019 and we’d have several months until it was delivered.

Just before the lock-downs started, Tiff and I rented an Air BnB in North Carolina to have some solitude. I don’t think we’ll ever forget our time there, which was something like 3 or 4 months. The cabin was secluded and surrounded by forest. We saw at least 10x as many dear as people. Internet was slow and often out entirely. In fact, it was so unreliable I conducted a live webinar from the parking lot of a McDonalds some 15 miles away to have a stable connection. Satellite was available, but would cut in and out, or be lost entirely during the frequent thunderstorms, along with the power altogether rather often.

One of the roads in the secluded community we stayed in during the height of quarantine in 2020.

That cabin in the woods was our stage for learning and coming to accept hard truths. Quarantine began while we were staying there. Fortunately the owners of the cabin were amenable to letting us continue renting until we were in a position to safely leave, and gave us a discounted rate. It was our oasis in a far too real sense. We knew at this point hospitals were being overrun and that the national guard was being deployed. Things sounded apocalyptic, but Tiff and I were surrounded by nature that never betrayed anything like what seemed like chaos in the towns and cities far away.

While we remained in quarantine we tried to give ourselves creative exercises. This Instax Wide print came from one of those exercises. Still, I did manage to experiment some and also deal with some mental hurdles. I’m sure we’ll come across some more prints from our time there. The taxidermy deer watched while we were both brave and afraid.