Made In China

Covid Still Life

12″ x 12″

Oil on Canvas

‘Ala Prima’

2020

 

 

This still life was inspired by the authentic stamp of ‘made in China’ that came out of a package of blue disposable masks I purchased. This painting includes a black fabric mask that I wear out in public. The authentic fan (owned by my grandmother) represents China. The lily and decaying pomegranate represent the deaths from Covid-19 and the mortality we all face. The orange represents, traditionally, the privileged and the lace represents the fragility of life.

 

Relationship of Time in Isolation

Covid Painting

12″ x 12″

Mixed Media-Egg Carton, Acrylic Paint on Canvas

2020

 

 

 

This painting/piece has a connection to the feelings I had during self-isolation and quarantine with my elderly mother. Although I feel grateful to have been with her during this difficult time and keeping her home and not in a care facility, the feeling of one day blurring into another and losing track of time or sense of the relationship of time was intense. With her failing memory and connection to time, the time in self-isolation with her we even more poignant. The rare anomaly is the one black dot.

My mother has a very limited diet and her main source of protein are eggs. I make many basic meals for her from eggs and therefore have many recycled egg cartons. I felt intuitively and practically compelled to punch holes with a basic hole punch out of these cartons. I am still exploring the need to do this action. There are exactly 2,304 punches on this canvas is shades of gray. Which is exactly 1/10th the number of breaths that the average person breathes in a day.

Where the Coronavirus affects the lungs and breathing and the ‘at-risk’ vulnerability of my mother, these brought further insight to my making this piece.