My work portrays a typical New York City day in the present. I see so many people wear their masks improperly and react differently to seeing others. I’ve decided to capture this pandemic by showcasing different people’s interactions with one another. People go from smiling to each other to giving nasty looks to wearing exaggerated protection. Walking around the city you see all sorts of things going on, so I added different shades of colors into the background to emphasize change. I also chose to work with acrylic to show movement with the paint strokes.

For this piece, I utilized graphite and sentences cut out from old books. I decided to create a portrait looking up to a brain that is spilling negative thoughts. I tried to tap into how the pandemic has affected mental health and how isolation leads to self-deprecation. Each strip of text illustrates a different thought that I have encountered during the pandemic and as you move down the piece you will begin to notice that not all the text is negative. As the pandemic progressed we all began to return to some normalcy and I tried to capture that as well. Upon further expectation, you may also notice the brain has arms and legs. I included limbs when rendering the brain to make it seem as if the brain was running away and further how the person below is almost lifeless. When faced with isolation it can be easy to lose track of time or not feel completely conscience.

Materials I used for my project were cardboard, a mask, newspaper cutouts, paint, glue and a lego minifigure. The message I was trying to show was how people felt isolated in their homes during the pandemic and how they're constantly surrounded by negative news of the world. In addition, make the viewers feel how lonely and sad it is for people who are living alone and have nothing to do. 

For this photo series, I wanted to capture an important yet sometimes overlooked part of the COVID pandemic: signage. During the pandemic, signs have been vital to our survival and morale. Inspiring messages to lift people up when they may feel isolated, bold statements on a piece of cardboard for a protest, street art, and even just the social distance stickers we see at our feet when waiting in line for something. I think this photo series encapsulates a large part of the experience of living through COVID in New York City.

In my artwork, I wanted to create a piece that conveyed the hospital situation right now. As I researched further about the situations I have noticed many health conflicts surrounded by healthcare. Doctors are one of the most important jobs in this world and most of the tv shows only show the good side of their work. In this artwork, I wanted to show the struggles healthcare professionals went through during Covid-19. To portray this I decided to use colored pencils and Pens. When someone sees my artwork I want others to appreciate healthcare professionals. I hope my artwork successfully showed the struggles healthcare workers went through during the Covid-19.

The materials I used include adobe illustrator and adobe photoshop. I used those applications to explore the idea of what we do/use/can relate to during the Covid-19 pandemic in the format of a traditional bingo-like game called Lotería. I am familiar with this game because its part of my Mexican culture and I used to play it a lot with my grandparents. My artwork represents how our communities can relate to each other about the pandemic that is happening. If I were to make an actual game with multiple sheets and a full set of 54 cards, I could put this game on a table inside of an art exhibition and people could actually play it together and interact with each other and the artwork.

I simply used my stylus. This could mean anything from just being friendly to being close to the ones you love. It’s just a reminder of the connection we’ll continue to share!

For my art piece I used acrylic paint and colored pencils. The message behind my piece is highlighting how the pandemic globally left its mark on individuals. In this difficult time where we are all searching for peace and understanding, the one idea we can embrace is that we are not alone. The blue, green, and yellow in my painting represent the earth. On the other hand, the red ribbon with covid cells inside represents all of us on our journey back to some normalcy especially with the effects of covid that we endure. I hope my work allows people to grasp the idea of unity and exhibit peace in the sense that we are not alone in this fight against covid. In addition, another idea that I want my audience to take away from this would be to never underestimate what one may go through, especially in regards to health and safety along with what the power of art can do for it is capable of changing ideals, thoughts, and actions.

Mary Anderson is an artist educator based in Brooklyn, NY.

Laina Weiss is an artist educator based in the East Village.