For a few days last week I was mentally paralyzed by the abundance of things new. As my work calendar disintegrated, what’s next quickly became old news and considering scope, personal projects became meaningless. I started painting to deal with the mental gymnastics.

On Sunday, I finally picked up my camera and began talking with folks about the impacts of the novel Coronavirus. Here’s that timeline in reverse.

Wednesday - 3.18.2020

Writer, DJ, record store clerk, artist — and gig worker — Preach Jacobs isn’t happy with South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster’s March 11 comments encouraging large events, schools and government buildings to stay open.

Less than a week later, everything is cancelled. The gigs are gone.“It’s forcing me to read the books that I haven't read in a while. It forces me to write a lot more. It forces me to work on some music and some art. I'm working on a quarantine B tape,” says Preach, “A lot of times, there is a lot of great art that comes out of the struggle. And being a black dude in America, I definitely understand that.”

Preach worries that folks aren’t taking the virus seriously enough.

He saw the photos from Spring Break in Florida and has had worrisome conversations with close relatives, “I had to fuss at my parents. They were gonna go to a casino in North Carolina this Monday. Luckily they shut it down. I'm having to be the parent. I'm like, "Yo! Stop! What the hell are y'all doing?”

Preach encourages artists to make items available to people who want to support them. He is selling hats, shirts and other merchandise at mobettasoul.bigcartel.com

To those who aren’t worried about death by virus? “The reality of it, they're probably right about it not killing them. But what about their grandmothers? What about their parents? What about the older people that they spread it to? That's the thing: we can't just be concerned with something just because it doesn't hurt us - we have to be considerate for everybody else.”

Tuesday - 3.17.2020

“A couple weeks ago, it was a bunch of people canceling. They didn't say why,” says Elizabeth Nettles on Tuesday morning, speaking about when she and her business partner, Tim Chappell, first noticed a dwindling schedule at Unity Massage Practitioners studio — where they’ve been in business since October. As of Tuesday, they were still open at the River Dr. spot near the fork with North Main, but with only a few appointments left on the books.

“I didn't have any appointments this past week. And one next week,” says Tim, “And we're not gonna have the money to pay the rent here if it keeps up for… they're saying eight weeks? That's the end of it.”

For Tim, his concerns stretch beyond the scope of his business. “I think it's a disaster that is gonna require the government to exceed its normal range of power for an amount of time not yet specified.” He is more anxious about public hysteria than about getting sick. “It’s more dangerous to be out there fighting people for toilet paper, than to come in here,” he says, seriously and with a laugh.

Monday - 3.16.2020

“This is a bizarre time to be alive,” says event venue owner and DJ Kevin Snow on Monday evening, standing in the front parlor the 90’s built Lexington home that now also functions as a wedding venue. He has been trying to stay positive.

“I was suppose to DJ a wedding this weekend, DJ a wedding next weekend, the fourth, the 11th, the 18th, and the 25th of April. Every single Saturday. And the same thing in May. I can already see the dots. So if this goes until June or July, like they think it might, it totally destroys this wedding season,” says Kevin, “And just kinda looking at it — and saying it out loud right now — is just kinda making me sick to my stomach.”

Despite Kevin’s estimates of a 50% loss in revenue for the year, he hopes — and expects to be able to weather the loss of the Spring season.

Monday - 3.16.2020

Shannon Hinshaw is still unpacking. The full time baker and cake artist moved into her new Lexington home on March 12, the day before the president declared a national emergency in response to the Coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic.

Shannon was planning to transform her garage into a kitchen. “Normally I spend Mondays answering emails, sending invoices, consulting about cakes,” says Shannon, “If I touch my phone, it's all bad news. And there is no money coming in. It's all money going out right now.” “At this point, I'm just walking around the house, playing stay at home wife until people call and want cakes. I can keep promoting on social media and I do delivery,” she says, “[but] they don't have a need for me if they are sitting with their six kids at home.” Her husband is a software programmer, currently without threats to employment.

At first, Shannon thought about looking for a bartending gig, but that idea was squashed nearly as fast as it came. “I don't have a back-up plan. I don't want to come up with one, because I feel like that is kinda giving up. So, I just sit in silence, and see what happens — and keep posting the photos and hoping someone bites. Maybe I'll take cupcakes to hospitals.”

To order a cake: Fill out the contact form at madbatterbake.com

Sunday - 3.15.2020

March is typically the busiest month for freelance photographer John Carlos. “All these cancellations for my business roughly cost me about 1/5 of my yearly income... I do hope that those numbers are off, but as austerity measures lengthen, so does the hardship.”

Probably a surprise to many, The Big East athletic conference holds their tennis championships in Columbia each year and over the last few, Carlos has been counting on that gig.

Missing out on that one is painful. “I’ve lost revenue from UofSC matches in softball, basketball, tennis and baseball,” says Carlos, “My biggest hit came when the NCAA decided to cancel rather than postpone all of spring sports.”

Adding to the problem, events like the Carolina Cup and the Five Points St. Patrick’s Fest, mainstays, for event photographers, have been postponed or canceled. Carlos also fears that the uncertainty of the markets is scaring away new projects.

www.jac2photo.com

Sunday - 3.15.2020

On Sunday morning Stacey Overstreet wasn’t sure which clients would be canceling appointments come Monday or Tuesday.

A few hours later, with the announcement of statewide school closures, she was telling her team of six at Stacey O. Massage and Esthetics Studio on Devine St. that they would be closing shop. Stacey estimated it will be weeks before they can reopen. “I've been watching the news for a couple weeks and been warning the team that we might have some big changes coming to us. And I've been really worried about it because everybody that works here depends on this paycheck to pay their bills. But today I finally decided it was time to close it for a while.”

Overstreet has been operating the studio at the location for four years, following an eight year stint running a massage studio out of a single room.

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