After losing job to pandemic, art helps Bradenton woman find an outlet
SARASOTA, Fla. - Like millions of other Americans, Lisa DiFranza lost her job when the pandemic hit in March 2020. She was the cultural curator at Art Ovation Hotel in downtown Sarasota.
Lisa said getting laid off wasn't surprising.
"Being in the arts, you always know that you’re going to be one of the first to get cut, no matter what environment you’re in," she said with a laugh.
But she admits it was jarring.
"Because then what?" she said. "You know I'm used to working and having that paycheck come in."
Lisa, who has spent her entire career in the arts, began to cope in a unique way.
"The morning after I got laid off, I produced the first sketch. It was just a little sketch, like a doodle," she recalls.
She says it was really natural for her to process what was going on through a visual medium. It helped, so she made another one.
"I guess I’ll do that again, and then again, and then again, and then again," Lisa says. "Who knew it would be a year?!"
Then, Lisa's Sketch-a-Day project was born.
"It was never my intention to do a long-term everyday project. It just tumbled out organically," she says.
Every morning of this unprecedented year, Lisa sits down and paints. Sometimes she paints to express feelings and sometimes to document the little things happening in her world, like a work crew cleaning gutters.
"That was a big event during COVID," she says.
Lisa says the project is drawing out many bottled-up emotions we are all experiencing.
"It's just really nice to get it out of the inside and into the world," she explains.
She has never been a professional painter, but thanks to her online exposure, she's been selling her sketches around the country.
"I feel grateful to have had this outlet and to have grown something during this time," she says. "But it doesn’t erase the hardships of this year and the confusions. It points to it in a way."
Starting on March 19, Lisa's sketches will be featured in an exhibit called "Time Lapse" at Mara Art Studio and Gallery in Sarasota. For more information and to see all of her sketches, click here.