Julie Baugnet COVID-19 sketchbooks and notes

This collection contains two notebooks and two sketchbooks kept by Julie Baugnet, a book artist and painter from St. Paul, Minnesota. The notebooks contain Baugnet’s observations of epidemiologists and other experts as well as other information on COVID-19 that was being publicly disseminated and notes for her COVID-19 projects. “Covid Notes #1” is dated February 21, and features Baugnet’s notes on Dr. Michael Osterholm’s podcast on the pandemic. On the cover of the notebook is “info for my journals and sketchbooks” and on its interior end page are descriptions of her “Covid Journals # 1-33" projects. The notes date from 2021 and appear to be ideas for journals 3 and 4. The second notebook is titled “Covid Notes #2, 2020-2021” and is a continuation of Baugnet’s notes on the same Osterholm podcast. The notebook entries are dated from 2021 to 2022. The content of the two notebooks, aside from notetaking on Osterholm’s outlook, discusses themes of sheltering, isolation, spread of COVID-19, vaccinations, schools, maintaining relationships during the lockdowns, alterations to holiday traditions, and ideas and notes for her COVID-19 related book projects.

The sketchbooks by Baugnet are titled “Sketchbook #2 – Let’s See What Summer Brings, 2021” 1 and “Sketchbook #3 – On-again, Off-again, 2021-2022.” Sketchbook # 2 represents April to September 2021 and features a timeline, a map of Baugnet’s neighborhood, an illustration of her home – the Bluestone Cottage, images of nature, illustrations of household scenes, drawings of each COVID-19 variant’s bacteria cells, and reactions to pandemic-related news. The last entry in the sketchbook is on September 30, 2021, concluding with “the Delta Variant is getting worse” and “when will we get back to normal?” Sketchbook #3 represents Baugnet’s daily sketches from October to March 2021 and includes drawings of St. Paul and Minneapolis buildings and city scenes, interaction of people with masks on, drawings of modified holiday celebrations, pictures of wildlife, Baugnet’s views on the Omicron variant, a scene titled “Christmas comes and goes,” and eventually a celebration of the national rates of COVID decreasing. Baugnet concludes the second sketchbook with a quote from Osterholm: “We need a much better plan of attack for the future.”