Together apART: Picturing an Invisible Threat

"Within the context of the pandemic, my abstracted work serves as a metaphor for both the anxieties and aspirations toward the future."

"Being able to escape into nature was a way for me to deal with the impact of suddenly being isolated. I was doing everything in one giant lofty room that served as my studio and living space with my four cats" To my surprise, I found a deep sense of healing in the midst of an uncertain world."

"...after seeing those greyish Corona spheres with red/orange antennae floating about on our media screens, I found that I needed to find a way to recreate them in 2D and 3D to gain some understanding. They haunted me with their growing presence locking us into the fatal disease."

"My Ripple series is inspired by the ripple effect of goodness we experienced in our communities, even as the covid-19 pandemic engulfed and crippled us in many ways."

"Being essentially cloistered at home, I found myself constantly bombarded by images related to the Covid pandemic. The images reminded me of all we had lost, all that was gone from our lives."

"During Shelter In Place, and having to homeschool I began a project with my children to teach them how to make pigments. I used elderberry - one of the homeopathic treatments that might protect us from the virus - to make a vibrant and deep tone."

"I see the imagery as biomorphic representations of humans in lonely and longing postures. Some of the materials used to create the maquettes might be viewed as pandemic related in that they emanate from simple medicinal (pill) packaging."

"There was every chance that we could and would die from it. It was coming for me. It was bigger than I was. There was nothing I could do except scrub my hands, wear a mask, and run like hell."

"It’s too painful to hear about all of the deaths. My general outlook of being happy and loving nature has turned to darkness. Thank goodness I have my studio and can express my feelings in paint."

"I had been working as an event planner at a retreat center for 13 years when Covid hit. All our events were canceled, soon after I was furloughed, and finally, I was let go. As a single woman, I was cast into isolation at the exact moment I needed community the most. To cope and stay busy, I developed a daily studio routine and offered art classes online to children."

"I learned a quilting pattern called ‘Double Friendship Knot.’ It is a variation of a mid-20th century pattern. I wanted to combine that with what was going on in the world today, hoping that the countries of the world might join together in friendship to diagnose, treat and solve this disease before it got worse."

"By mixing “the dots,” the vivid colors of Fauvism, the audacity of Pop Art, and the fantasy of Surrealism, a second, calmer and less violent iteration of my Corona Monsters evolved."

"When I sat down to recreate the war-zones of Covid, I realized I had to fill the surrounding spaces with other colors. What started out as an attempt to re-create a diagram, failed. Because there is no such thing as empty space during a crisis. In the end, it all became a red-zone. But layered over that was love, compassion, bravery and hope."