Resilient Americana: Patience:
America’s Pastime Postponed at Tom Varn Baseball Field is a Hybrid VR Painting™ by Dave Alber.
acrylic on Canson paper and panoramic VR technology
22 x 10.75 in (56 x 27 cm)
2020
In the time of COVID-19, Americans are asked to stay indoors to weather the silent storm of the virus’s spread, while among children and adults alike, hands itch to throw, catch, and bat a baseball in a community of shared enthusiasm. Patience is a virtue, it is said, as players, coaches, and families who would gather around, and make a fine outdoor day of their enthusiasm, are forced—rather—to “sit on the bench.”
Patience, we are reminded, is in many respects the essence of the game. It is a game where players wait for their turn to bat, where field positions wait for their moment of play, and where spectators wait for skill, strategy, and sheer perseverance to pay off. Games are metaphors for living. And through the inconveniences of the quarantine, we might find ourselves spectators to manufacturers turning their production to safety masks, ventilators, and medicine. Still wearing the virtue that our forefathers wore while working with technology of a different pace, we might think back to World War II, and that gap of time between the Pearl Harbor attack and when American manufactured weapons would be ready to engage in the storm of War in both the Pacific and European theatres. Silent though the field may be, the game is still on.
