Mary Bottom poses with one of her oil paintings at her home in Lewiston on Tuesday. Her mask features a reproduction of her painting of a character she named Harry Badger. After her grandmother died of COVID-19 this year, Bottom said the pandemic has profoundly impacted her work. Andree Kehn/Sun Journal Buy this Photo

Lewiston artist Mary Bottom lost her grandmother to COVID-19 in May while in an assisted living facility in New Hampshire.

“Me and my family are the only people I know who’ve lost anyone so far,” Bottom said. “That feels more isolating than the physical distance does.”

“I got the call from my dad that she was having trouble breathing, and within, three and a half days of getting tested, she was gone. We couldn’t visit. You couldn’t. There was no real closure in that way.” Bottom said.

“Once you’ve been faced with that, it changes your perspective on things. If I have to go out for groceries, I’m masking up,” she said.

Bottom’s grandmother was also a painter.

“When I would visit her, she’d show me the painting she had been working on. That was the thing that we had,” she said.

When Bottom got accepted to the art program at Keene State College, her grandmother sent her off with paintbrushes and art supplies.

When her grandmother’s storage area was cleaned out, most of the supplies were sent to Bottom. “It’s this amazing collection of vintage art supplies. I’ve been going through all these brushes and paints and supplies and sketchbooks that belonged to her. It’s my version of closure.”

After her grandmother died, Bottom, who had been working a part-time job in addition to her home studio art business, and her husband decided they would be safer if she worked from home with their 8-year-old.

The extra time has brought a different focus to her artwork.

“My business model had been going to shows, festivals, Sunday Indie Market and, Sparkle Sunday, being out there in person to sell my work,” Bottom said. “There’s not as much pressure to be producing things to go to a festival. It’s freed me up to play a bit more and not worry about if someone else is gonna like this enough to buy it.”

She has used the slower pace to switch gears.

Prior to the pandemic, Bottom worked primarily in oil paints, gouache and watercolor. “A lot of my work focuses on portraits. I add surrealist elements. There’s folklore fairy-tale influences,” she said.

She renovated her home studio and started experimenting with digital art techniques. “I’ve always got about one thousand projects going,” she said.

“When I’m experimenting with digital art, there are things that I’m capable of doing because you have the ability to change minor details on the fly,” the artist said. “It’s allowed me to push for a more complex piece than I would feel comfortable doing if I’m oil painting.

“My work tends to not be topical. I use it as an escape from the real world. Growing up, sitting in my room listening to music, and drawing my own little worlds was my escape,” she said.

“I am a bit of a shut-in, and I have my family,” Bottom said. “So I’m not completely alone, but I feel like I’ve handled the isolation. I mostly just sit in my cave and do my thing.”