In three decades of making artwork, this art project is my first to focus directly on politics. This series of paintings is in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, its mismanagement, and the concurrent  exposure of the deep-seated racism and longstanding inequality in our country, including the demaonstrations surrounding Black Lives Matter. The resulting artwork is titled A Week in Times. The artworks form a 50-panel chronicle of our existence during the pandemic. After listening to a Hyperallergic podcast about photojournalists’ coverage of BLM demonstrations, I was struck by the idea that their desire for recognition and awards often determines the kinds of pictures photojournalists take. Questioning if these photos were taken to focus on drama over realistic portrayal to attract attention or notoriety, I explored this idea in a series of new artworks that combine color field painting and newsworthy events. I replaced the newspaper photo with a field of color found in the sky  and left the caption for the viewer to engage with and mentally make their own image. The color is placed in the location where the photo was on that day’s front page.

In this series of paintings, the supports I painted on are the size of the New York Times newspaper page. I replaced one photo from the front page of the newspaper with a color field. The colors I used in this series were visible in the sky as seen from my home studio at dawn or twilight, looking over the East River, and then reproduced in paint. The caption of the deleted photo was written on the bottom of the support. 

The beautiful colors are incongruous with the newspaper photos' captions, and what began as a way to express my grief and dismay during this time became my emotional anchor. Accordingly, this chronicle of the pandemic offers another way to process what we went through: it leaves room for a personal response to the shared events. 

Keeping it visual:

LINK to an edited artist’s talk I was invited to participate in with curator Mary Birmingham on the occasion of the exhibition (de)Coding at the Visual Arts Center of NJ, February 6- April 25, 2021. ~ 6 minutes

QUICK OVERVIEW of the series, via a photo montage. ~ 48 seconds

The project has a few segments of focus:

• VOTE. Chronicling the presidential election from 10.29- 11.8.2020, one painting is documented each day through the election period.

• Democracy at Risk. Documenting the time from the calling of the election for Biden/Harris through the inauguration. The palette for this group is variations of fields of graphite gray.

• First 100 days. Chronicling the first 100 days of the Biden/Harris administration by using each Sunday’s news.

Keeping it visual:

LINK to an edited artist’s talk I was invited to participate in with curator Mary Birmingham on the occasion of the exhibition (de)Coding at the Visual Arts Center of NJ, February 6- April 25, 2021. ~ 6 minutes

QUICK OVERVIEW of the series, via a photo montage. ~ 48 seconds

The project has a few segments of focus:

• VOTE. Chronicling the presidential election from 10.29- 11.8.2020, one painting is documented each day through the election period.

• Democracy at Risk. Documenting the time from the calling of the election for Biden/Harris through the inauguration. The palette for this group is variations of fields of graphite gray.

• First 100 days. Chronicling the first 100 days of the Biden/Harris administration by using each Sunday’s news.