Local artist Paula Brinkman has continued her daily art creations, started in 2016, on the Fairfield Hills campus throughout the pandemic.

Residents may know her art from her daily temporary heart paintings or from seeing her artwork on sale at Queen Street Gifts. She also keeps track of her creations through an Instagram account called heartsonpavement.

By early September, when she will return to work as an assistant teacher at Trinity Day School, Brinkman estimates she will have created approximately 150 painted hearts.

Throughout the pandemic, Brinkman said, keeping a routine and structure to her day has been helpful.

“They are like a grounding point, and I start my day by painting,” she said, sharing that even the drive to the Fairfield Hills campus can be comforting. “It just puts my mind in the right place.”

Brinkman paints in the same spot, near the Victory Garden, every day. She frequently sees the same people, other creatures of habit, in the same place at the same time.

She arrives, opens her trunk, takes out her tempera paint, then works quickly. And she always takes a breathing moment to snap a picture of her creation before leaving. The photo is then posted to her Instagram account with a word or phrase. There was a time during the COVID-19 pandemic that Brinkman says was her “un” phase, in honor of all the things that are “until further notice.” “Un” words she posted with her art included “uncertain” and “unsure.”

“It’s like a visual journal for me,” Brinkman said.

She began her heart art creations in July 2016. The tempera paint is nontoxic and water soluble, and her art washes away with rain.

The pandemic has given her time to explore nature and to be thankful for “the beauty of our area.” Brinkman said she has explored places in town that she has never thought about walking, going to, or seeing before.

“For me, and many people, this is a time of huge unknowns... This is a continuation of something for me that gives me balance,” Brinkman shared. “And I love working in a series. So in many ways this is the perfect continuation of something I started and have no intent to stop.”