Logan Howard ’21 is a Creative Visual Lead on the YSFP’s communications team. She is an Environmental Studies major, concentrating in Urban Environments. She loves that her time with the YSFP involves connecting people and place through art.
Over the past few weeks, I've been on the Farm helping to document the physically distanced workshops and workdays. I started the semester doing this through photography: a dynamic and mobile method of capturing many different moments. I would move all throughout the Farm in an effort to get as many different shots of crops, the harvesting hands, the candid laughs, or the bees and butterflies on the flowers. It was active and exciting-- interrupted with brief pauses to focus in on a shot or to see how a quick shutter turned out. But sometimes, I found myself wanting to just sit. To find one corner of the Farm and just watch as my peers filled buckets with tomatoes, or as the sun’s glimmer on the hoop houses changed with each passing cloud. I wanted to slow down. What would happen if I focused less on capturing everything, and instead focused more on a few special moments?
So I started illustrating.
Instead of a camera, every workday I came to the Farm with my iPad or sketchbook. The hour or two that I spent drawing was slower, but more intense, much like the pace of life I’ve grown accustomed to this year. I spent longer looking at one crop, observing one person, listening to conversations, and absorbing the energy of the Farm. It was static and calm, interrupted only when picking a new spot and subject. The refreshing feeling of being outdoors, away from Zoom calls, and near people other than my roommates was something I wanted to bask in. I’m grateful for the beauty, spirit, and resilience of the Farm always, but especially now in my senior year and in these unprecedented times.