UNCONDITIONAL: How do you feel right now?
Conie Vallese: Calm, but aware that it could shift to the opposite.

UM: Do you have a routine or daily rituals at the moment?
CV: Exercising in the morning for at least an hour has been the one routine that I’ve established. After that, I let the day flow depending on how I feel. I have stopped thinking about “productive time” or of time as clocks and numbers. Instead, I am focusing on how I can make myself and others feel good.

UM: Name a few things you’ve been able to do that you never normally have time to:
CV: Finally found time to make my favorite recipe “pastel de papas” and grandmother style beets and potato gnocchi, homemade soups, and banana bread. I have been dropping off some to a few friend’s doors. It is not so much about the act of cooking but the sharing of what you make that makes this activity so special.

UM: In what ways is this time making you think about life and what you want out of it?
CV:I think this sort of additional time–we can describe it in many ways–tends to lead any sensitive person into a particularly introspective thought process. If anything, those thoughts are magnified by this stillness we are all having forced upon us. With this, there is a sense of calm amidst the chaos and preoccupations. This “ unproductive” time brings these thoughts to a place where they feel more digestible, it gives you more time to go deeper into understanding yourself and acquire further self-knowledge. I think good thoughts come from stillness.

UM: What changes do you want to make in your life or work as a result of this?
CV: I would like to stop rushing to get things done, and practice becoming more present with all the things I do on a daily basis. I will always continue asking myself questions.

From The Poetics of Space by Gaston Bachelard (1958)As soon as we become motionless, we are elsewhere, we are dreaming in a world that is immense.

UM: 5 positive things that you have experienced as a result of isolation:
1. I value even more the strength and solidarity of my relationships with my partner, friends and family.
2. Rebuilding conversations with old friends I haven’t spoken to much in the past years.
3. Reading for hours in bed and not being on the A train.
4. Painting, painting, painting.
5. Weirdly having less anxiety in the day-to-day has been a source of relief during this time, as well as envisioning a clear future. This has helped simplify how I best make decisions for myself to suit my needs at the present time, and not think so far ahead.

Conie on life post-quarantineI would like to see more awareness in regard to the way we consume absolutely everything. From food to clothes and non-sense modern prefects, we need so much less.

UM: What have you realized or come to understand about yourself that you didn’t before this experience?
CV: I am experiencing a lot of reassurance from within myself, rather than a particular realization about myself.

UM: In your ideal world, what would be some of the changes you would like to see post-quarantine?
CV: I would like to see more awareness in regard to the way we consume absolutely everything. From food to clothes and non-sense modern prefects, we need so much less. People accumulate and accumulate and accumulate so many things…

UM: What do you miss most?
CV: I miss hugging my friends and seeing smiling faces.

UM: If you could be quarantined anywhere, with anyone?
CV: I would be with who I am with right now, where I am right now.