I created these two large scale sewn collages made from my own repurposed materials. Taking the time to create work based on the experience of living through a worldwide pandemic has been cathartic.

The pandemic banner “In Memoriam” was made to honor the 6.5 million people who have lost their lives to date. This loss of life has been unsettling in its magnitude. In these last three years memorials for covid and non-covid deaths often never happened and for me, as for many of you, we mourned alone. Creating this piece has been an outlet for coming to terms with the grief of losing family members, mentors, students and friends dear to me during this time. While searching through past artwork for materials to use, I came across a silk piece I created originally in 1988. To the watery blue background I added painting, vintage fabric and regalia. It was important to me to find a way to honor and celebrate the buoyancy, levity and light of the lives lost.

During the first year of this pandemic we collectively experienced isolation; for essential workers the isolation took the form of a single piece of cloth. The Pandemic Flag entitled “Unmasked” is made from leftover mask parts from the first few months of Covid 19, when masks were largely unavailable. Like many, I sewed masks to distribute during this tenuous period. This was a singular and somewhat frantic experience, which made me feel a bit less helpless because I felt I was actually doing something helpful.This flag is a tribute to the resilience and tenacity of frontline workers and the scientific community who helped us to survive this fragile and profound time in history.