COVID PORTRAITS PROJECT:
A Better Place
When schools and businesses shut down in March, like most of us, my world became almost totally home-based. As the news of COVID seemed to grow scarier and scarier, it was easy to slide into isolation and hopelessness.
Looking up from the headlines and out from my own tiny world would lighten my worry and fear every time I made the effort. A walk on my road or a rare trip to the grocery reminded me of all the people who were out there trying to figure out how to get through this, and doing what they could to help others get through it as well — as neighbors, as employees or business owners, as friends and family. All these people were trying to make the world, our new crazy COVID world, a better place — day by day, task by task, and moment by moment.
Painting portraits of individuals I encountered in these COVID days allowed me to focus on the strength and the grace of the people around me — people who were showing up every day despite whatever new uncertainty awaited. While I worked, I spent hours staring at the angle of a cheekbone or the shape of a smile, and tried to capture my subjects’ willingness to be vulnerable in this uncertain world. Purposely putting my attention on my neighbors forced me to spend more of my time thinking about the good in the world around me, and to not retreat into fear.
I am deeply grateful to the people in these portraits for allowing me to photograph and paint them, and for the million small and large ways each of them has made our shared world a better place.
These paintings, all of which are oils painted on 6x6” or 6x12” panels, are on display at one of the few places open easily to all, the Village Market, in Waterbury through December, 2020.
Georgia, Masked