It’s surreal! We’ve spent the last 3 months sheltering in place, buying toilet paper and flour. It all started after a coronavirus that first appeared in China, started spreading early March all over Europe and then made its way to America. Countries reacted in very different ways, Italy, Spain and France were hit hard and had to ask people to stay home, with little opportunities to go outside. Sweden on the contrary, did very little in term of social distancing. Here in the Netherlands, the governments came up with some rules they called the “intelligent lockdown”. People were asked to stay home and schools were closed. But we didn’t have to wear masks or carry with us an authorization to go outside. We were free to go anywhere we wanted on our bicycles. People started working from home and the outside world closed its doors. Art galleries, museums, restaurants, concerts, stores turned off their lights. I had a show in Amsterdam at that time and my paintings ended up being held up at a location that wasn’t accepting visitors anymore because they were helping Covid patients .
I started working on this series “Home” in April, I didn’t have the energy or the time to paint on canvas. I was inspired by my discussion with other moms, our every day struggles, homeschooling our kids, trying to find toilet paper at the store and being overwhelmed by the news.
Now things are slowly getting better in some countries, the numbers of people getting infected are decreasing. But we’re still careful and worried. We cross all our fingers with the hope that this virus will go away or that a vaccin will be made.
In the US, the black american community, already victim of police brutality and social inequality, has now to face the effects of the pandemic. “I’m just as likely to die from a cop as I am from Covid,” says Mike Griffin, a black community organizer in Minneapolis in The New York Times. On May 25, 2020, the death of George Floyd sparked protest nationwide. Black Americans with the support of a majority of the population are asking for racial equality and pushing the concept of defunding the police, reshape public safety and reassign the fund to social programs. Some Republicans are announcing that they won’t be supporting the president for the election in November. We finally can start hoping that 45 won’t be reelected!
This Series is a work in progress. These digital illustrations were made on my iPad in my studio in Amsterdam. I uploaded the files on Saatchi for large prints and on Zazzle for postcards.
