If you watch music videos, you've been touched by Floria Sigismondi. The director's aesthetic - practised on artists from David Bowie to Rihanna to Marilyn Manson - has become a highly recognizable (and dark) visual language influencing legions of other directors. Her films, including Joan Jett biopic The Runaways, have similarly left an indelible mark.
»Subscribe to CBC Arts to watch more videos: bit.ly/CBCArtsSubscribe
Sigismondi, who grew up in Ontario, is also a visual artist, deft with a camera or a paintbrush. And while isolating at her home in California, she turned to old photo albums, using images of family and loved ones as the source material for a body of new paintings.
Looking through the old pictures, she says, "The past - I find myself thinking about it, the way we used to do things, the world I constructed around me."
In this video, Sigismondi takes you into her dining room/studio, where she has paints set up to be used at any moment. And she shows you a few of the works she's been focused on. The thinking she's done while she paints has led to some optimistic views of the future: "I really believe that we'll come out of this different. I'm hopeful that we can utilize and use this time to reflect, to make the world a better place, to come up with ideas that we can then use in the world, whether they're artistic or actual ways of implementing things for the better of all."
In our self-shot video series COVID Residencies, we're checking out how artists are adapting their practices in isolation, whether it's diving into different processes or getting lost in their sketchbooks.
Find us at: cbc.ca/arts
CBC Arts on Facebook: / cbcarts
CBC Arts on Twitter: / cbcarts
CBC Arts on Instagram: / cbcarts
About: Welcome to CBC Arts, your home for the most surprising, relevant and provocative stories featuring artists from diverse communities across Canada. Our job is to fill your feed with the disruptors and innovators changing how we see the country through movement, images and sound - and to inspire you to join in too.