“Maida Vale won’t be shaken so easily” – young artist Nadine Seddat on the pandemic

Nadine Seddat, 14, from Maida Vale shared with us how she used art to bring hope during the first coronavirus lockdown early on in 2020.

“Hello! My name is Nadine and I’m a 14 year old secondary school student! Like a lot of the population right now, I was going to school normally until we were forced into lockdown. It has taken its toll on me (especially since it feels like our teachers are giving us 10 billion times more work than we got before) but I’ve been trying to find ways around it.

An example of this is my artwork. I draw quite a bit and it’s one of my hobbies that I really enjoy, but now that we’ve suddenly been given a load of time to burn, I’ve been able to draw even more and I’m really enjoying it! Of course, I do take time for my other hobbies too like playing my violin, coding and Latin to name a few!

I think that even though we’ve been kicked out of our regular flow of life, it doesn’t mean that we can’t create a separate flow of life while stuck inside our houses. It’s like a tributary in a river- there’s still the main river that flows in a straight and definite direction (our normal day to day lives) but it’s also okay for part of the water to divert into a separate path (the new flow of life we decide to create for ourselves in lockdown).

So, what were my motives behind this drawing? Well, to draw this, I decided to go about it systematically, which is quite weird if you think about it- going at something creative with logical thinking, but as the saying goes, opposites attract! I thought about the meaning and the message I wanted to give out to the readers, and I eventually decided on one. This digital painting I made was made to show that although times may be tough right now, with the protection of our amazing NHS staff, the government, the World Health Organisation, charities and all the other dedicated workers who risk their lives for our well-being, Maida Vale won’t be shaken so easily. In fact, our community should keep on shining and being a light in the darkness.

I hope you enjoy this painting as much as I enjoyed working on it (however much of a challenge it was to conjure up!).”