Mario Zoots is an artist based in Denver, Colorado.
TWS –How are you doing in this Covid-19 pandemic?
MZ –I’m doing well here in Denver. I’m happy to say that my family and myself are safe and healthy. I’ve turned the dining room table into my work space at the moment. Piles of magazines all over the table. I have a problem! At the beginning I was glued to the headlines and I had a lot of anxiety about how bad this was going to get. But as the days have gone on I’ve looked less at the headlines and focused more on connecting with artists through my new project Fragments. We are conducting interviews, publishing zines and writing essays about collage, assemblage and appropriation. It’s just a few friends and myself trying to keep working during this weird time.
TWS –Are you being able to telecommute / work from home?
MZ –Yes. I am currently teaching 2D Design for the Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design online. I was working as a high school art teacher for the last couple of years but decided to step down in December and started teaching online then. I can’t imagine the pressure the public school system Is having now with moving all students to online teaching. It must be such a change. In my current position at RMCAD, all the online classes are setup beautifully and all the content is one place.
TWS –Did the lock-down affect your creativity and art making? How?
MZ –The lock down has affected how I get materials. There is no more going into second hand shops or bookstores. So I’ve ordering a lot of material from EBay and Amazon. I’ve been ordering paper, adhesive and cutting tools from Blick online. I haven’t been to my studio in a few weeks. I was working on a lot of larger things in there. Here at home, I’ve returned to these smaller works on paper. I started cutting up the New York Times, there are beautiful images in there, the photography is just beautiful.
TWS –Are you able to track positive moments or things that happened during this crisis so far?
MZ –I’ve been spending so much time with my son Jonas and my partner Amber. I feel like we would all have places to go, like school, work or the studio, but now, here we are all working from home. We are taking turns making dinners, having long conversations, learning new things, binge watching TV shows and getting on each other’s nerves sometimes. It’s been great!
TWS –What’s the first thing you would like to do when we can get back too normal?
MZ –I miss shooting pool at local bars with Amber. I miss going to art openings, and to the museums. I can’t wait to travel again. The first thing I’d like to do when we get back too normal is to give big hugs to the people I haven’t seen in a while.
