April 2, 2020

In White River Junction, lots of cartoonists end up living with other cartoonists. In one house, Kevin Fitzpatrick ’21 and Kristen Shull ’20 are two of four roommates learning to live together under the nearly nation-wide shelter-at-home orders.

Kevin talked with Angela Boyle ’16 a bit about getting his school work done in the new online environment at CCS, and with the distraction of COVID-19 taking up more mental time than one would want.

I’ve had the problem that a lot of artists are having—I just can’t seem to concentrate long-term on anything other than the outbreak. My solution has been basically not to try. I’ve put all of my other projects on hold for now. I’m writing about the outbreak these days, and I’ll continue to until I can work up the mental energy to write about something else. For my last assignment [at CCS], I abandoned a half-finished project to instead write a personal essay about my feelings during the first few days of social isolation. For my first-year final project, I’m writing a journalistic piece on how organizations in the Upper Valley that help folks struggling with poverty are adapting to the outbreak. It’s been very effective for me, although I could see it not working for everyone. It’s helped me to channel my anxieties into a constructive place. It’s hard to have to put things I was excited to make on hold for a while, but honestly I’m just grateful to be making any art at all. 

—Kevin Fitzpartrick ’21

Kristen has been working on keeping a schedule, including completing daily diary comics where she is processing her feelings with social distancing and trying to finish her second-year thesis project. You can read her comics on Twitter and Instagram (@ego_gala).