Artist James "Rabbit" Thomas walks through his studio on Feb. 21, 2022 in Ludington, Mich. Thomas has an exhibit, "Rabbit's Universe: Finding Joy Through COVID Conflict & Quarantine," which features art made since the start of the pandemic. The exhibit will run March 4-26 at the Ludington Area Center for the Arts. (Riley Kelley/Ludington Daily News via AP)

LUDINGTON, Mich. (AP) — Seven hundred days into a mission to create art during the COVID-19 pandemic, artist James “Rabbit” Thomas is feeling good, walking through his Ludington home, gesturing effusively to the hundreds of paintings and sculptures that have been his focus for the past two years.

Since early 2020 Rabbit has made art every day, sharing it with his followers on Facebook, as a way to find joy and inspire others to do the same. The project has blossomed into an expansive two-year retrospective exhibit, “Rabbit’s Universe: Finding Joy Through COVID, Conflict & Quarantine,” which is slated to run March 4-26 at the Ludington Area Center for the Arts. Artist receptions will take place from 5 to 8 p.m. every Friday of the month.

Speaking to the Ludington Daily News — his cat, a rescue named Jonesy, chiming in from time to time — Rabbit beamed with excitement about the fact that he’s been able to channel a turbulent time into something positive.

Rabbit — whose nickname was affectionately given to him at age 4 by his stepfather — has a Facebook page filled with hundreds of images of colorful vistas, flowers and outdoor scenes, about 80% of which came from his own imagination.

There’s a sunflower in a pensive pose, a tulip that appears to be conducting an orchestra of blades of grass, and the many adventures of a girl named Flora, a character who’s often spotted relaying the motivational words that accompany the posts: “keep smiling,” “spread some joy,” “be kind.”

Though his messages are filled with hope, the last few years have been hard for Rabbit. Though double-vaccinated and boosted, he’s had COVID-19 three times. Before the pandemic hit, he lost a job locksmithing in Colorado, so he was unemployed when lockdowns began.

He also lost his mother, almost lost his brother and has had several medical issues during recent years. Add to that the general sense of frustration, confusion and isolation that have accompanied the pandemic era, and it was enough to inspire Rabbit to put something beautiful into the world.

“When quarantines started, there was so much negativity — on Facebook, on social media,” Rabbit said. “Negativity about politics, negativity about race, negativity about COVID. … I said, I’m going to put out something happy — a piece of art — to make people smile.”

So he did just that.

The pandemic afforded him some opportunities for creativity that he didn’t previously have: time, for one thing, and stimulus funds. Rabbit invested in art supplies and got to work.

Now, two years later, that work has ballooned into something all its own, bringing with it a renewed sense of hope and purpose for the artist.

The routine of the project has been a comfort for Rabbit, who said it’s “how I found joy and gave it to other people over the last few years.”

It’s helped him stay centered and focused to a degree he didn’t previously think possible.

“This whole time, I didn’t think I’d make it this far,” he said. “I’m not one for routine, and for me to do something for 700 straight days is amazing.

“I just wanted to do art. COVID happened and I had no more excuses.”

At the heart of the project is Flora, a character Rabbit created who functions as a lens for his colorful vision of the world. He has illustrated hundreds of panels that follow the girl through the ups and downs of life during the pandemic.

“Flora is how this whole thing started,” Rabbit said.

The idea for the character came to him when he was playing a song on the piano during the early days of the pandemic. The jaunty tune he tapped out ended with a tumbling handful of notes that evoked the image of a girl taking a spill from her bicycle while out picking flowers. Rabbit decided it was something he wanted to commit to the page.

“This whole thing started as a song on the piano. It turned into a dream, a vision, and a reality,” Rabbit said.

He shared pictures of Flora’s story on social media and received positive feedback, and what was initially a plan to do a seven-day series on the character turned into a massive collection.

The Flora series includes more than 250 colorful panels depicting Flora as she stares longingly out her window during quarantine, explores beaches, goes to protests, snowboards, and rides her bike.

Aside from the Flora images — which Rabbit hopes to include in a future book — everything that will be included in the LACA exhibit will be available for sale.

Though he’s been an artist his whole life, earning his BFA from the Art Institute of Chicago, he’s never created art to “generate a cashflow, but it has.” People have seen his work and purchased it, and he’s sold many pieces since the onset of the pandemic.

So, for the first time in his life, the 56-year-old is eyeing art as a profession as well as a passion.

“I never did it to make money. It was always to put a smile on someone’s face,” he said. “All of this has resulted from me saying, I want to put something good out there.”

He sees the upcoming exhibit as a chance to help promote his own work and to support LACA, which will received 30% of the earnings from the showcase.

The LACA exhibit will feature an interactive component that will reflect some of the frustration of the last two years. Rabbit said there will be “4-foot by 4-foot piece of plywood with other pieces of wood juxtaposed, and a bucket of nails.” Throughout the month, anyone who wants to will be able to “pound a nail in it” and participate in the art themselves, maybe getting out a little frustration, too.

“By the end of that month, that piece of art is going to change. … It’s going to be different every day,” Rabbit said. “That represents the chaos of the last two years. And as you look around the room you’ll see my flowers, and how I found joy through that chaos.”

The exhibit will also include statistics about COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths.

The show will not mark the end of the project. Rabbit plans to keep going with the daily artwork, which he calls a “celebration of hard work and just staying positive.” He said he’ll continue to post his art and his encouraging messages.

Since the pandemic is ongoing, he thinks there’s still a need for his encouraging images and messages of hope.

That’s something Rabbit needs, too.

“I’m going to keep going. It’s my therapy,” he said. “(It’s) helped me, because it’s been tough. … The only thing that saved me was the piano, my art and my kitty cat.”

He said he’s wondered from time to time if he was “hiding” from the world behind his work, but he’s realized, “I wasn’t exactly hiding, I was expressing myself through these colors, and I wanted to spread that to other people.”

Asked what he hopes people will get from the exhibit, Rabbit said he wants people to leave with “a smile on their face — a good feeling. A refreshed feeling of joy.”