Words by Smiley Team
During this pandemic, many people are taking up new creative hobbies to help improve their wellbeing and mental health. In light of this, The Lonely Art Club, a digital initiative, has been founded to help provide a space for community and creativity for people throughout the world.
Each Monday, a different artist posts a prompt to which the community members create responses to throughout the week, using any medium they would like. Contributors range from professional artists to people who have never done anything creative before in their life and all mediums are welcomed.
The art club is the idea of Natalie Byrne, London-based illustrator and author of the book Period and host of the TLC (The Loneliness Collaboration) podcast.
Speaking to Natalie, she said that ‘I had been thinking about creating an art club for a long, long time and this opportunity with the self-isolation really made me get it going.’
The idea for the art club is intentionally simple, to allow as many people to get involved as possible.
‘There are no wrong answers in the art work. It’s for everyone and anyone to get involved.’ So far, submissions have included illustrations, graphic design, painting, digital artwork and poetry. Artworks are shared on the community page, providing a platform for creatives at any stage in their career to get their work seen by more people from across the world.
‘I hope that it will bring people together, give people an activity to do and even if people don’t get involved, the words chosen are designed to be really positive so even scrolling through the artworks might help make things a little easier’.
‘If you need a little escapism, a little distraction, an excuse to get involved in something creative, we would love to see you there’.
You can find out more about The Lonely Art Club page on their Instagram and get involved with any of the weekly creative challenges.
By Ellen Jones
