This month we’re featuring Grace Reynolds for the Capitol Hill Art League’s Mind of the Artist feature. Read her story and check out her artwork below. You can view her artwork https://www.instagram.com/pandemic.release/

Hello! I am Grace Reynolds. I grew up in New Jersey and went to college at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (Go Blue!), where I studied financial mathematics. I traveled abroad solo after college graduation and then started my first job in New York City in financial consulting (and am now an analyst at a financial firm). I stayed in New York for 4 years during which I lived with my sister in the Upper East side, passed all 3 levels of the CFA exam, and met my boyfriend, Daniel, of now 5.5 years via a dating app!

As a child I grew up going to art classes where I learned how to sketch, paint, and draw. In high school I continued to take classes here and there and would sometimes find myself painting my bedroom walls at 2 am on a Saturday night. I would be completely lost in the paint, one of the few moments in my life where my thinking brain paused, and my creative mind took over.

Although I took sketching classes in college, and even considered minoring in art at one point, for many years I did not make art a priority. Painting was always an idea that I would pick up again once I had the time.

During the peak of the Pandemic, we decided to escape the city and stay in Charlotte, NC for an extended period. With everyone feeling the same sense of loneliness and boredom there was plenty of opportunity to reclaim my creativity. Emotions were running high, and I knew I needed a release. Painting was my outlet and after weeks of putting brush to canvas Pandemic Release was born.